Oil and gas transmission lines use three main ON/OFF valve service products:
Ball valves, full or reduced bore, Side or Top entry, bolted or welded body.
Through conduit gate valves (slab or expanding gate).
Full opening swing check valves.
The main standard of reference for all these valves is API 6D / ISO 14313.
Subsea transmission lines foresee a wide use of Ball Valves that have to resist to hyperbaric outside pressure environment (standard API 6DSS / ISO 14723). Required VALVES facing this application is continuously upgrading its testing equipment to submit its products to various subsea installation conditions.
Gate, ball and check valves are designed to meet the so called “piggable” requirement. The use of equipment launched in pipelines to clean the line (“pigs”) or measure the integrity of the wall thickness of the line (“smart pigs”) has become a standard in the industry.