Asked which sessions he plans to attend at the Valve World Conference in Dusseldorf, Mark Breese quickly reels off a whole list of topics that are, he indicates, very relevant to his work with valves and actuators at Severn Glocon, who are a leading manufacturer of critical and severe service control valves for industries such as oil & gas, power and chemical. However, the spark which prompted his real and initial interest was the workshop being organised by Henk Hinssen on the Tuesday afternoon on SVRP : SIS Valve assemblies Reliability Prediction.
As Mark notes this workshop is set up as an initiative to address the reliability of SIS valve assemblies with a focus on SIS ABV actuators. “Concepts such as partial stroke testing of critical valves are very important to us and our customers. I was therefore especially delighted to learn that Ed Holtgraver from QTRCO had been invited to give a presentation, as he can address this often technical subject from the perspective of the plant operator. Ed and I go back a long way and I am sure his input will be most refreshing.”
Delegate profile
Name: Mark Breese
Company: Severn Glocon
Title: Engineering Manager and also Group Product Development Manager Butterfly Valves
Location: Gloucester, UK
Previous visits? This will be Mark’s first time at a Valve World event in Europe, although he has attended the Valve World China show before.
Outside interests: Mark enjoys running and recently completed the Cardiff half marathon
Photo: shows Mark during his travels through Alaska
Discussing additional areas of interest Mark says he has already circled quite a number of presentations on his copy of the Conference Programme. “Looking down I can see that I’ve marked the fugitive emission session on the Tuesday morning, and I certainly want to catch the talk by Mr Muneyoshi from KITZ about using triple offset valves as an alternative to gate valves. And later on that same day there’s a session on SIS and Safety which should be particularly informative.”
In addition to attending many of the conference sessions Mark also hopes to find enough time to walk the expo floor where he is likely to bump into many familiar faces from throughout the industry. Says Mark: “In my twenty-year plus career initially in process engineering and then in valves I’ve been fortunate enough to work for Sony, Alfa Laval, Crane and Curtiss-Wright before joining Severn Glocon, so I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many people in flow control. I’m therefore looking forward to networking at the expo.”
He will also be keeping an eye open for any new technologies although he stresses the word ‘new’. “Many so-called innovations are often simply adaptations of existing designs and the results can be less than satisfactory. Severn Glocon has a commitment to innovation and developing valves to suit often difficult real life applications; that’s why for our Severn Leeds OCT® butterfly valve for example we went right back to the drawing board to produce what may be the first triple offset valve designed primarily with the needs of critical service control in mind. But I am sure there will be plenty to see.”
