VALVE SAFETY
The challenges of supplying severeservice valves to one of the world’s
most safety-conscious industries
KOSO Kent Introl (KKI) specialises in the supply of hightechnology surface and subsea choke valves, standard
and severe-service control valves and rotary valves for
the oil and gas, petrochemical and power industries.
These industries have always been safety conscious, but
since the 2011 incident in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and
gas industry in particular now demands absolute and
unrelenting focus throughout its supply chain.
This means that KKI is often involved early in the
design and specification stage. Within high velocity,
high temperature, high pressure or erosive service
applications, our experts help to design valves that
might face their greatest test at start-up or shut-down,
or during infrequent but feasible events. In this way,
safety is designed in.
IN OUR
COMPANY,
SAFETY IS
EVERYONE’S
BUSINESS
Once in production, KKI’s customers demand information
on the provenance of materials used in the supply and
manufacture not just of the valves, but of actuators,
instruments and spares that might be supplied with it.
Valves must undergo stringent testing regimes (including
body hydrostatic and gas testing, PR2 qualification
testing (to API6A/ISO-10423/ISO-13628-4) and fugitive
emission testing (to ISO15848-1). Customers will also
request regular updates on the company’s safety record
during production.
KKI manufactures from Brighouse, Yorkshire, and the
company holds OHSAS 18001 and RoSPA silver award.
Day-to-day initiatives include:
• All employees completing the IOSH Working Safely
course, resulting in an active participation in safety
culture
• Monthly ‘H&S walk-rounds’ for managers, factory
personnel and the HSE team on a ‘you and me’
- not ‘us and them’ basis
• Factory employees in risk assessments and HSE
meetings
• A ‘Hazard, Incident, Near Miss, Observation and
Suggestion form’
• Use of HSE’s 'Safety Moment' and Tool-box Talks'
bulletins on notice boards, at meetings and team
briefs, as well as hand-outs and posters linked to
employee-identified hazards.
The outcome of this focus is a transparent and audited
supply chain, delivering the highest quality valves in the
safest po