Davide Brambilla and Sandro Esposito, Dresser Masoneilan

Intelligent valve technology and partial stroke testing

Smart valves can simplify deployment of safety systems and provide a higher level of plant protection through more effective testing. Safety instrumented systems (SISs) have become essential components of today’s new process plants. This advance has been driven by a variety of forces, from new industry standards to increased pressure from governmental agencies worldwide and lessons learned following high-profile accidents. Partial stroke tests (PSTs) of emergency shutdown (ESD) valves have long been used to improve SIS performance. By monitoring these critical valves regularly, PSTs help ensure the system’s ability to shut a process down in the event of an emergency. See more charts and graphs.