Many organizations that support valves in the petrochemical and oil refining installations have certain specifications and standards that are to be adhered to. These specifications affect some of the important factors of refineries and valves like steel, globe, gate, and also check valves according to standards.
What is API Valve?
American Petroleum Institute (API) has been a result of many of the documents provided by the Manufacturers Standardization Society of the Valve and Fitting Industry (MSS). The API documents, along with other such precise documents, cover all aspects of valve designs, inspection and testing, functionality, and other such important things. The amount of codes, specifications, and standards written in these documents is so vast and huge that it can only be comprehended and implemented by an expert valve engineer. A great understanding of the codes is required to run a successful business involving valves. Dhananjay Choudhary, managing director of Camtech Manufacturing FZCO, is adept at these codes and standards; hence, he has been running an extremely successful business.
How do API Valves work?
Here’s a list of all the API standards and what they do.
- API 600 (Steel valves with flanged, butt-welding ends): These are the primary specification for the purchase of steel gate valves. The criteria for construction and design are detailed, along with trim designation and material, with an appendix that contains pressure steel valve information.
- API 602 (Steel gate valves, compact in nature, threaded, flanged, the extended body ends, welding): It is the specification for purchase of the 4″ compact steel gate valve. Like the 600, the designation and trim are detailed, as well as construction criteria and design. They are expected to contain bellows steel gate valve specifications in the future too.
- API 603 (Gate valves, corrosion-resistant, flanged end, cast): The valves are generally used in places where the API 600 can’t be cast due to its thickness. They comprise light-walled gate valves from sizes NPS ½” to 24″ belonging to 300, 150 and 600 classes.
- API 608 (Metal balls, butt-welded, and flanged ends): Metal ball valves of classes 150 and 300 are specified for purchases in this standard. The working pressures on ball valves must be based upon the seat material, and not on the class of the valve.
- API 609 (Butterfly, wafer, and lug type): These are specified for the purchase of butterfly valves with wafer and lug type configurations that are usually designed to be installed between flanges of ANSI-B16 type, via class 600.
- API 598 (Valve testing and inspection): This covers the inspection and testing part of all the above types of valves along with globe, check, and plugs. Results influence the results of API steel valve pressures by ASME or ANSI B16.
- API 6D (Pipeline valve specifications): These are the primary specifications and standards used for pipeline services, including plug, gate, check, and ball valves. Some refiners also test this code for assurance before making a purchase.
Hope this gave you sufficient idea about what API Valves are and how they work. Don’t worry if it didn’t, because understanding these aren’t even easy for engineers!