Emerson Process Management has signed a three-year contract with Dow Corning for the supply of control valve monitoring services to their Barry, South Wales plant. As Dow Corning’s largest manufacturing plant for silicon-based products globally, production continuity is crucial for the company and its customers. Emerson service personnel will be applying advanced diagnostic tools such as AMS ValveLink® and Flowscanner™ control valve diagnostics.
Two trials have proved to Dow Corning that this diagnostics approach leads to increased efficiency and savings in maintenance costs. In the first trial, on a relatively new section of plant, the Emerson Flowscanner software showed that of the 26 control valves that would normally have been removed for overhaul, 22 of them required a minor adjustment or no work at all. It was only necessary to remove four valves from the line for repair. In this trial, the control valve diagnostic checks saved 73% of the cost over the traditional methods of valve maintenance. In the second year, an older section of plant was inspected. Two thirds of the valves were found to be operating normally, and only 10 out of 31 valves were removed for overhaul. This represented a 55% cost saving.
