qualified valve manufacturer

[Engineer9182]

Hello all,
we want to buy couple of valves for our company in petrochemical sector. the thing is that we are unable to buy valve from a manufacturer that we bought before. and we want to choose a new one. what criteria we should first consider that qualifies a manufacturer the most reliable one? for example a company that never built butterfly and claim that can customize our specific valve can be trusted? what factors it should have? i mean if manufacturer has ISO 9001 is it enough or we should consider more factors? I appreciate your kind responses.

 

[rotw]

I would consider requesting a detailed reference/experience list, target equivalent application, ask for exp. for: client, plant location, valve type, capacity, size, rating, fluid gas/liquid handled, tag no., in critical/essential/vital service?, manufacturing location, hours of operation, etc. It always provides some initial indication about the capabilities of the vendor, but the process is NOT limited to this only. You may need to qualify more than if you want any leverage for commercial negotiation.

If you are in the petrochemicals, this should all be sorted out as I would expect you have solid processes, company standards in place. If you are a subcontractor, the end-user must have all those things, vendor lists in place. Bit strange query...unless you can clarify? Are the valves in process service?

 

[mk3223]

Agreed with rotw, check the Vendor's reference for its past engineering and service experience. May have a third party inspection to visit the Vendor's shop, and also involve your Procurement to check the Vendor's finance, if needed.

 

[Engineer9182]

Thanks for all yours comments. First of all I have to say we want these control valves for Ethylene plant I Furnace section in a petrochemical company. we already have control valves in service form Motoyama but we no longer can provide from this manufacturer. Now till now we have two option Samson and masoneilan. If your wanted to choose like me which one would you choose? and why?

 

[rotw]

Can't you ask them reference lists? There are easy to get through Sales contact.
Otherwise, I am more concerned about your last question, its being asked as if this was an 'easy going' exercise to do; especially given the fact this is petrochemicals facility. A valve failure could potentially originate a real disaster. I have attended a workshop on process safety and seen the photos of a major plant disaster which resulted in casualties (including the death of an operator);root cause was a valve gasket (in process service) incorrectly selected. Must be a rigorous process in place, including switching supplier.