General Comissioning and Maintenance requirements

General Comissioning and Maintenance requirements

 Only persons who have studied and carefully read this manual with general requirements, as well as the installation instructions for a specific product, who have been trained in labor protection and who have practical experience in installing such equipment and common sense, should be allowed to install pipeline valves. Proper selection and installation (comissioning) of equipment ensures reliable and safe operation throughout the entire lifetime.

General demands before mounting and commissioning of ABRA valves

1. To avoid failure, water-hammers (hydro-shocks), cavitation and noise, ABRA valves should not be used at fluid flow rates above 3 m/s for DN6-400; 2.5 m/s for DN450-600, 1.5 m/s for DN700-1000; 1 m/s for DN over 1000
2. In general, it should be kept in mind that for all types of pipeline valves, no more than 10-30% of Kv value in terms of water flow should be considered as the absolute maximum allowable flow rate. Higher flows require special technical solutions and need special consideration and agreement with the valve manufacturer. Before mounting  carefuly consider hazardous liquids or gases in the pipeline i.e. - what is in the pipeline or what may have been in the pipeline before. Consider: flammable materials and medias, hazardous substances, extremal of temperatures. Take into account fire and explosion hazards, harmful to health, etc. media, as well as critical temperatures for those (temperatures of phase transitions, decomposition, etc.). Do not forget that the energy (work of forces) of intermolecular interaction during phase transitions will destroy any structure, as well as the fact that water expands when it freezes.
3. Before monting consider hazardous environment around the product i.e. - Consider: explosion risk areas, lack of oxygen (e.g. tanks, pits, ), dangerous gases, extremes of temperature, hot surfaces, fire hazard (e.g. during welding), excessive noise, moving machinery. Consider the effect on the complete system of the work proposed. Will any proposed action (e.g. closing isolation valves, electrical isolation) put any other part of the system or any personnel at risk? Dangers might include isolation of vents or protective devices or the rendering ineffective of controls or alarms. Ensure isolation valves are turned on and off in a gradual way to avoid system shocks. Ensure that any pressure is isolated and safely vented to atmospheric pressure. Consider double isolation (double block and bleed) and the locking or labelling of closed valves. Do not assume that the system has depressurised even when the pressure gauge indicates zero. Allow time for temperature to normalise after stop to avoid the danger of burns and consider whether protective clothing (including safety glasses) is required.
4. Before starting work ensure that you have suitable tools and/or consumables available. Use only genuine ABRA replacement parts. Consider whether you and/or others in the vicinity require any protective clothing to protect against the hazards of, for example, chemicals, high/low temperature, radiation, noise, falling objects, and dangers to eyes and face.
5. Manual handling of large and/or heavy products may present a risk of injury. Lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying or supporting a load by bodily force can cause injury particularly to the back. You are advised to assess the risks taking into account the task, the individual, the load and the working environment and use the appropriate handling method depending on the circumstances of the work being done.
6. The valve materials and working media compatibility sould be checked, and system internal and abmbient parameters should be within limits determined by producer.
7. Before mounting valves the intermal pipeline should be cleaned from dirt, sand and foreign objects .
8. The valves should be unpacked and plastic plugs should be dismounted only just before mounting.
9. Then the valve should be visually inspected for dirt inside, breaks or damages.
10. Test opening and closing cycle should be made to make sure that disc, ball or piston move smooth and the valve operates in a normal way.
11. Inspect the welded adjoinng flanges: they should be welded coaxially with the axis of the pipeline, the axis of the bolt holes should coincide with each other, the sealing surfaces should be perpendicular to the axis of the pipeline and parallel to each other, and the distance between the sealing surfaces should correspond to the installation length of the valve. It is not allowed to suppress the misalignment of the pipeline or the gap between the valve and adjoining flanges by delivering stress to the valve body.
12. Inspect the sealing surfaces of the valves and the flanges: they should not have dirt, residues of signs grease, nicks, signs of corrosion and other defects.
13. Ensure that both ends of the pipeline are securely fixed to the supports and will not move during installation.

General demands to transportation of ABRA valves

1. Carefully lift and move ABRA valves manually or using lifting equipment, avoiding shocks, falls and canting. It is forbidden to throw valves.
2. The slinging should be carried out using special devices (eyebolts, eyelets) or to the valve body. It is not allowed to sling to wheel, gearbox, drive or other external parts. In order to avoid damage to the protective coating of the valve slinging to the body should be made only with cloth sling. The installation of pipeline valves should be only allowed to persons who have studied this instruction with general requirements, as well as installation instructions for a specific product, who have been trained in safety and have practical skills in the installation of such equipment and common sense. The right choice and installation (mounting) of the equipment provides reliable operation throughout the entire lifetime.

Special note for installation of valves with electrical actuators.

1. Before installation the valve and the actuator should be set-up properly for for combined operation as it demanded according to actuator producer's manual:
   1. Check the assembly or assemble valve and actuator;
   2. While mounted in any orientation but for strictly vertical the actuator should have own supporting structure undependable from the valve;
   3. Installation of actuator below the valve is strongly not recommended;
   4. Set up end position limit switches of the actuator for "On" and "Off" and check safety torque limit switches of the actuator;
   5. Make few cycles of opening and closing of the valve with manual gear of actuator;
   6. If manual operation ; was well, then you should make proper connection to electricity and make few cycles of opening and closing of the valve automatically. Only after that if operation is normal you can mount the valve to the pipeline.

General requirements and installation guidelines of ABRA valves

1. The ABRA valves operating depending on flow direction (check valves, strainers, etc.), should be installed in the pipeline in such a way that the flow direction fits with the arrow on the valve body.
2. Tightening of bolts of flange connections must be done crosswise in 2-3 passes. (see details below)
3. While mounting valves with the use of lifting equipment, lifting devices shound not be removed or loosen until the valves are fully secured in the place and the support is installed in the place if that is needed.
4. The sealing gasket of the flange joint should be uniformly distributed over the entiresealing surface of the flanges and properly centered.

Installation of flange gaskets (Attention! Not all valves require the installation of gaskets, for example, for ABRA butterfly valves and ABRA rubber flexible joints, the installation of flange gaskets is strictly prohibited!). Tightening of flanges connections. Installation of flange gaskets. Trouble-shooting.

A) Procedure of flange gasket installation (Attention! Not all valves require the installation of gaskets, for example, for ABRA butterfly valves and ABRA rubber flexible joints, the installation of flange gaskets is strictly prohibited!)

1. The main and counter flanges have to be of the same type and tightly aligned. The total misalignment of the flanges must not exceed 0.4 mm
2. It is unacceptable to tighten together with fasteners the flanges that have some distance from each other. In such cases it is necessary to use spoolpiece with gaskets on doth sides.
3. The fastener must be selected so that its stress limit is not exceeded when the required load is applied to the connection.
4. Additional tightening of the bolts in flange connection with non-metallic gasket after the accident with extra high temperatures is unacceptable. (The gasket may loose elastity, and additional force will destruct it).
5. Ensure that there is no corrosion on the fastener, because it decreases the ability of the fastener to hold the load.
6. Еnsure that the gasket material fits the specification for this connection.
7. Make sure that there are no significant scratches on the working surfaces of the gasket and flange, especially in the radial direction.
8. The fasteners material should be chosen so that permissible load of the nuts is 20% higher than the permissible load of the studs or bolts. Always use washers from the same material as the nuts.
9. If necessary, the fasteners thread should be greased with a uniform thin layer. When using stainless steel fasteners, make sure that the use of this particular type of grease is allowed.
10. Reusing fasteners and gaskets is not acceptable in general.
11. Always use gaskets with a minimum allowable thickness.
12. When cutting gaskets for flat flanges, the bolt holes should be cut before cutting the external and internal diameter of the gasket itself. In case when the holes for the bolts are located close to the outer or inner diameter of the gasket, cutting them after cutting the gasket can significally damage its shape.
13. Gaskets should be stored in a dry, cool place protected from heat, moisture, oils, and chemicals. They should also be kept flat in a horizontal position (i.s. not hooked on hooks).
14. Greasing of gaskets and flange faces is not allowed.

B) Tightening the flange bolts.

The connections should be tightened step by step in three or even four passes, in a “crosswise” sequence, as shown in the figure. Keep in mind that with this sequence, tightening one of the bolts may weaken the other(s), therefore, as a last step, it is recommended that all bolts be tightened in a circle. Some connections need to be re-tightened again prior to commissioning in order to compensate for the relaxation of gaskets and fasteners. Also in some cases in heat exchangers, when using gaskets of certain types together with the flanges of some forms adjoining surfaces, it is necessary make additional tightening of the connection after primary heating of the heat exchanger:

C)Trouble-shooting. (Attention! Not all valves require the installation of gaskets, for example, for ABRA butterfly valves and ABRA rubber flexible joints, the installation of flange gaskets is strictly prohibited!).