The Importance of Safety Valve Fire Testing

Fires and explosions are the fifth most common cause for vessel casualties. Valve fire testing is a necessary safety step for your business.

Safety valve fire testing plays a crucial role in ensuring vessel safety and compliance in the shipping and maritime industry. And it protects the environment, safeguards cargo and prevents potential disasters.

 

Why is Valve Fire Testing Important?

There are several reasons why high-velocity valve fire testing is essential.

First off, valves safeguard and protect your vessel’s cargo tanks from excessive under or over pressure during loading, unloading, transportation, and storage. So, ensuring your valves are safe, functional and regulatorily compliant will naturally protect your vessel, cargo and crew.  

And secondly, the shipping and maritime industry has been flooded for decades with inexpensive pure weight- or spring-activated valves known to malfunction, causing Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) leakage and risk to human life. While these valves are still operational today, testing can be a great way to demonstrate that they are not fit for their designed purpose.

 

What Causes Cargo Tanker Fires?

According to the IHS’s State of Maritime Safety report, there were 903 fire and explosion-related shipping incidences between 2015 and 2019. Many of these incidences occurred on bulk carrier and tanker vessels.

Whilst little data exists on the exact causes of fires onboard crude oil tanker vessels, we know from experience that malfunctioning valves are oftentimes the culprits. When a valve starts to hammer, the flow velocity decreases, allowing the flame to bypass the valve and enter the cargo tank, leading to an explosion.

 

What is Valve Hammering?

Pressure valve hammering is the rapid, full-stroke opening and closing of pressure-vacuum (P/V) safety valves. It often results from a valve’s inability to prevent or eliminate pressure fluctuations, surges and fires within a cargo tank ventilation system.

How do you identify valve hammering?

Identifying a hammering valve is quite simple, as it presents clear visual and auditory signs, including moderate-to-severe thrashing sounds like a hammer striking a pipe, alongside uncontrollable shakes and vibrations from the valve or surrounding pipes. These signs are a high cause for concern. Immediate action to stop the hammering is absolutely essential.

Why is valve hammering a problem?

Valve hammering compromises the structural integrity of valves and surrounding piping, potentially causing catastrophic fire or explosion-related incidences, ultimately placing your vessel, its cargo and your crew at significant risk.

The International Maritime Organization implemented MSC/Circ.677 in 1994 to prevent the manufacture and installation of valves susceptible to inadvertent hammering and subsequent damage or failure. A later 2001 revision states that all pressure valves must comply with ISO 15364:2000’s safety standards regarding pressure/vacuum valve design, manufacture and testing.

Unfortunately, the IMO’s attempts to curb valve-related hammering incidences changed very little.

The IHS Chemical Tanker Casualty database shows fire and explosion-related incidences killed 28 people between 2009 and 2015.

Malfunctioning pure weight- or spring-activated valves either fully or partially caused these explosions.

 

Test Beyond Expectations

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Many in our industry see a valve as just a valve – it lets off steam and ensures some level of fire safety. But we believe there’s more to it than that.

We ensure full safety onboard your vessel at every level with our high-velocity safety valves. Our valves undergo strict mandatory fire testing in accordance with the latest ISO 16852:2016 and ISO 15364:2021 international standards. These standards set stringent requirements for valves and flame arresters to prevent flame transmission in the presence of explosive gas-air or vapour-air mixtures.

What’s more, our high-velocity valves feature the patented magnetic Mini-Slip technology, which prevents the passage of flames back into the cargo tank, ensures instant set point opening and performs rapid venting without valve hammering.

But ISO compliance is just one piece of the puzzle. As an industry, we must go beyond regulations and certificates and continue innovating forward-thinking safety valves for your vessel and crew.