Welding and fabrication-related lessons learned on valves
Aramco Europe has carried out an extensive study to identify root causes and other factors behind valve welding and fabrication failures .
By Hatim Hamdan , Talmiz ur Rehman , & Dragos Chetroiu ,
Aramco Overseas Co ., the Netherlands
The use of welding processes in valve manufacturing has expanded in recent years because welding technologies can help produce better and more cost-effective products . Welding is also used to overlay and build corrosion resistant layers to protect valves . Nonetheless , welding is a critical process that needs to be managed very well to achieve the required results . Aramco
Table 1 . Aramco Europe methodology to identify factors behind valve failures .
Europe data shows that in the last three years the number of valve failures related to welding and fabrication increased significantly , triggering the need for further studies and analysis . To identify the root causes and other factors behind these failures , Aramco Europe studied all valve welding and fabricationrelated non-conformance reports ( NCRs ) and
Figure 1 . Distribution of valve defects ( MNCRs and EDRs ) from 2007 to 2017 .
30 Valve World September 2022 www . valve-world . net