Innovative tank valve proves a hit with industry and authorities alike
Ultra Compact fuel tank valve
Back in April 2014, ex-fuel tank installer Stuart Bratt came up with a simple answer to an age old problem associated primarily with bottom outlet polyethylene fuel storage tanks. For decades the widely used generic oil filter/valve arrangement connected to the tank using a reduced coupling has proved problematic.
The two-piece set-up known as an ‘OFV, has cost many fuel distributors a small fortune in unwelcome pump-out costs. Due to its design combining the filter and isolation valve in one unit, the filter housing cannot be replaced when required, due to damage, corrosion, failure, leaking, etc. Without the need to first drain/pump-out the entire contents of the tank. The same costly and time consuming procedure also applies in the event of the oil filter valve being accidentally stepped upon by an unsuspecting fuel delivery driver.
Stuart’s idea was a simple one. Replace the adaptor with a neat, purpose made, compact isolation valve. Following two-years of development, the finished product, the ‘Ultra Compact fuel tank valve’©
was launched at FPS EXPO on 20th April 2016. Whilst the fuel tank manufacturing sector, with the exception of Envirostore UK have been slow to take-up this new and innovative product, take-up at the ‘coal face’ as Stuart calls it, is reported as brisk and nationwide.
“The product is boxed in 10s, 50s and 100s. I’ve been shipping plenty of tens, a number of fifties plus the odd hundred. In the main they’ve gone out to specialist tank installers and fuel distribution companies.” Stuart said from his modest business premises, on the outskirts of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, UK.
“Ultra Compact offers benefits for everyone within our industry”, claimed Stuart. “Starting with the tank manufacturer, simply the added value and security Ultra Compact provides will imply any manufacturer substituting the generic adaptor with Ultra Compact, that their tank package is the ‘premium product’. Not to mention the reduction to zero in costly call-backs to leaking OFVs, thus requiring the full pump-out service. That’s not to suggest the OFV will never leak, but now if it does the tank won’t require pumping-out.
Rectification works can now be carried-out with just a couple of hand tools and completed within a couple of minutes. From the fuel distributors’ point of view it’s a ‘belt and braces’ job for the filter. With costs quoted at around £150 every time an OFV requires replacing due to being ‘stepped upon’, the cost to saving ratio which Ultra Compact provides fuel distributors, has made this small but effective product an instant hit.”
Recalling when he himself was a tank installer, Stuart described substituting the ten millimetre brass nut and olive at the outlet of the valve for a neat ninety degree brass elbow fitting to avoid unnecessary soft copper pipe protruding from the filter horizontally before bending and passing below the surface of the ground. The addition of the elbow fitting permitting the draw-off pipe to pass neatly, vertically into the ground, thus removing both the trip hazard plus the risk of avoidable damage. Yet this modification came with its risks.
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.135 OCTOBER 2016
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