- by nick howard
100 000 valve operations! sounds like a lot, and in comparison to previous oliver valves endurance tests it is, however, this is just the entry level qualification for a new market that oliver hydcovalves will be targeting. the development of a hydrogen infrastructure, including
fueling stations for high energy dependent vehicles is forecast to be an integral part of the global objective to reduce of carbon emissions and a sector that is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years.
to gain entry into this new sector oliver hydcovalves will be developing a bespoke 10mm peek seated ball valve to meet the requirements of the fueling station standard iso19880-3:2018.
the qualification test will consist of over 100 000 operations at pressure of 10 000psi with 1000 cycles at maximum temperature and 1000 cycles at minimum temperature. for our in-house testing, helium will be used as the test media due to its inert nature and molecular similarities with hydrogen. however, further outsourced testing using hydrogen will be required in the future.
the existing electronically controlled systems in r&d comprising of torque transducers, programmable logic controllers and digital data acquisition will be used to operate the valves through the qualification. periodic fugitive emissions testing using the mass spectrometer will
be carried out throughout the test.
like all good inventions, the design is a combination of well proven technology. based on the 14mm oliver valves floating ball valve but with a 10mm reduced bore, the valve will feature increased spindle support and the oliver valves designed peek and elastomer fugitive emissions gland arrangement. an increased bore to sphere radii has been incorporated into the ball design to improve longevity of the
seats through operations.
in comparison to previous endurance qualifications, this is worlds apart however it will not be the completion of the test that we will benefit most, but the lessons that are learnt throughout the development.
