The API (American Petroleum Institute) Monogram Program has been extended to include gate valves for oil & gas refineries, power plants, paper mills and food processing plants. The API Standard 600 bolted bonnet steel gate valves, many of which use nickel alloys, are the first of the “downstream” class of valves to come under a new section of the API’s Monogram Program. “We hope it will provide an extra layer of confidence and safety,” says John Modine, API’s director of certification programs. By mid-September 2003, the API, which had already licensed two companies (one in China and one in Italy) for the downstream Monogram, received applications from eight other companies, and acknowledged that two other companies had begun the application process, according to Chip Evans, global services manager of API Quality Programs. Control valves often use nickel-containing alloys. “The principle request for API 600 is Alloy 400 (N04400), which is a requirement for valves for hydrofluoric alkylation units in petroleum refineries,” says Daniel Velan, advertising and sales promotion manager at Velan Inc.’s headquarters in Montreal, Canada. “However, we commonly supply API 600 valves in many different stainless steel alloys, primarily CF8M (J92900), but also special grades such as S31254 (Alloy 254 SMO) as well as others.”
