At the September Technology Evening, Johan van Niekerk, regional manager for Fisher, walked us through partial stroke testing of safety valves. Partial stroke testing (PST) is a technique used in a safety instrumented system to allow the user to test a percentage of the failure mode of a shutdown valve, without the need to close the valve all the way.
Alvin Seitz (r) presents Johan with the SAIMC certificate.
When safety valves remain in one position over an extended period of time without any mechanical movement they have a tendency to get stuck in one position, posing the risk of non operation on demand. This can impact severely on the functionality of a safety system with catastrophic effect to operating personnel, plant equipment and the environment. The benefits of using PST are not limited to safety performance, but gains can also be made in the production performance and capital cost of a plant.
Partial stroke testing is a standard technique accepted in the petroleum industry, which, together with Safety Instrumented Systems, has to comply with IEC61508 and IEC 61511. For local IA certification, PST equipment needs to be certified by TÜV Rheinland and Excida.
The Johannesburg branch thanks Johan for his interactive and entertaining presentation which was well received.
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