Blog

It’s not often that you run into a valve problem on the 17th hole of the Blue Monster at Doral. But that’s what happened one day around dusk when Jim Wickman and yours truly were trying to squeeze in 18 holes before dark. (Jim and I ran an engineering consulting firm many years ago. He’s still at it but I am more of the...

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It’s hard to believe but it’s already time for us to look ahead to 2018. This past year was an interesting year for water: we saw an uptick in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), more fallout from Flint, a focus on smarter water technologies, lack of government investment in water, and an increasing number of weather events impacting on water infrastructure...

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Hurricane Harvey produced widespread flooding in Houston putting the safety of the City’s drinking water system in serious jeopardy. It can happen anywhere. Drinking water pipelines are equipped with air valves that function to to vent and admit air as the pipelines are filled and drained. Air valves are critical to the safe and efficient operation of water systems.

But during severe flooding, contaminated flood water can be drawn into the distribution system during normal system operation. One solution for mitigating this risk is to install inflow preventers on the outlet of the air valves. An inflow preventer is a cross connection device mounted on the outlet of an air valve or vent pipe to allow normal flow of air in and out of the water system but prevent the inflow of contaminated water into a system as a result of flooding or malicious tampering. For more information on these AWWA C514 devices, read the white paper, “Protecting Drinking Water Pipelines with Inflow Prevention”...

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As told by the legendary Duke Waters....It was late on Friday, almost 4:30, when I got the call. With Miller Time on my mind, I picked up the receiver, and strained to hear Jim Wickman tell me about his latest woe. Jim and I go way back. Jim was Project Engineer on water projects up and down the coast for Watson, Price & Woods Engineers during the 60's and 70 's. Back when a deal was a deal and a full days work was 12 hours. My job was to bail Jim out when he started up projects and created sparks and steam. Yep, we go way back...

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Val-Matic Valve & Mfg. Corp.’s Air Valve Quick Sizing Calculator is a handy pocket tool to assist in the correct sizing of air valves for use on water pipelines, sewage force mains, pumping stations, treatment plants, booster stations and industrial process water and waste water systems. This calculator greatly reduces the amount of time necessary to size valves...

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The presence of air in a pipeline and it's impact on operations is probably one of the most misunderstood phenomena in our industry today. Many operational problems are blamed on inadequate thrust blocking, improper pipeline bedding, etc. These problems include broken pumps, valves and pipe, as well as faulty instrumentation readings. In reality, many of these problems are not caused by improper installation of the line, but by failure to de-aerate the line. It has been said that if a pipeline is properly de-aerated, you can't guarantee against a line break. However, if you don't properly de-aerate a pipeline, you should be prepared for one...

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There are as many types of valve coatings as there are types of valves, but in the waterworks industry, the current standard is epoxy coating. Epoxy coatings are highly corrosion and wear resistant and adhere to cast iron surfaces with adhesion strengths of 3000 psig or more and often serve as the seating surface for resilient seated valves. Epoxy coatings are certified for use in drinking water systems and have proven to be a reliable coating for over forty years. The coatings prevent corrosion, tuberculation, and wear in valves and promote efficient flow of fluids through piping systems. For more information, read the white paper, "Protective Interior Coatings for Waterworks Valves”...

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Operating a large waterworks butterfly valve at the Lithia Water Treatment Plant in Tampa Florida is no easy task. A 48-inch diameter butterfly valve like the one shown requires about ten-thousand foot-pounds of torque, which requires the use of a gear actuator and handwheel. Gear actuators come in two varieties, worm gears and traveling-nut. The traveling-nut actuator with externally adjustable stops was specifically designed for use with butterfly valves and offers some distinct advantages...

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Valves can be found just about anywhere today: in our homes, under the street, in commercial buildings and in thousands of places within power and water plants, paper mills, refineries, chemical plants and other industrial and infrastructure facilities. The valve industry is truly broad-shouldered, with segments varying from...

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Pigging refers to the practice of using devices known as "pigs" to perform various maintenance operations such as cleaning and inspecting on a pipeline which is done without stopping the flow of the product in the pipeline. This is accomplished by inserting the pig into a...

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