Fugitive emission Testing companies? 2

[tigeralum]

We are a valve distribution company in Houston.
We often get orders from customers which require the the valves to be fugitive emission test qualified.
we are looking to get few of our valves FE prototype tested.
I have contacted these companies,
- United valve
- Yarmouth Research and technology
- Southwest Research Institute
they were too expensive.
Can someone please give me list of companies around Houston or anywhere in US that offer FE testing?
It will be a great help.

 

[reverman]

Not sure you will find it any cheaper. I've visited both United and Yarmouth. Yarmouth pretty much does nothing else but FE testing (Matt does a couple other things but the bulk of the shop has FE setups) United is more broad in scope but they are great valve mod shop and can handle almost anything.

I'm not as familiar with Southwest other than I've heard the name.

I will say if you have a quote from those places you have a pretty accurate cost of the testing. Depending on what test your looking to run FE testing is pretty time consuming and expensive to set up.

If your going to be doing a lot of testing your other option is to build a test rig. API 622 is currently under revision and one of the things being kicked around to be added is a method of FE testing the packing in the valve.

 

[tigeralum]

Thanks a lot for the information.

Are you aware of any other facilities that I contact for FE prototype testing?

The reason I want to conduct a survey is that the price variation is a way too much between the 3 companies I mentioned above.

 

[reverman]

No all the FE testing we have done the last 10 years has been at either United or Yarmouth. Yarmouth being the only approved facility for a couple of the oil companies FE specs.

back in the mid 90's we did some testing at TEAM environmental services in Alvin TX. I think they were a branch of TEAM industrial however I don't know if they still do this type of testing:

http://www.teamindustrialservices.com

 

[bcd]

You have contacted the major test facilities that many companies are using. It is not that these facilities are expensive. A majority of the cost is assocaited with the test standard you are trying to meet. Some of the fugitive emission standards require an extensive amount of time collecting copius amounts of data that is useless for determining how the packing will perform in service. especially when special test equipment is necessary to collect the leakage and the test set-up does not represent the final product. So they are expensive.

Your best bet for reducing the cost is to challenge the test standard and push for a more cost effective method.

 

[tigeralum]

Are you aware of any company in Mexico that can do this testing?

 

[itascot]

Try TÜV Rheinland of North America, Inc. Enquire if they have anyone familiar with TA Luft Fugitive Emission Test. I have carried out this test in Europe for butterfly valves and we used TÜV Milan and TA luft spec, This is a regornised certification.