PUMPS, VALVES & ACTUATORS UNDER TEST AND BUILT TO LAST


Designed for the harshest applications – in onshore, offshore and subsea environments – valves from BEL Valves play a vital role in ensuring the world stays powered-up. Chris Williamson, technical consultant, explains how these safety critical products can be installed to operate without risk of failure


and temperatures in a variety of different installation locations. The most common places you’ll find BEL


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valves and actuators in use are in offshore topside facilities and deep-water production systems; and subsea manifolds and pipelines. Safety critical isolation valves are used for high-integrity pressure-protection systems (HIPPS), emergency shut-down (ESDV), boarding shutdown (BSDV) and subsea isolation (SSIV). The installation locations, product type and


size – valves are available from ½ inch diameter right up to 56 – may well differ greatly, but the common ground they all share is that they need to be uncompromisingly reliable as they are there to safeguard operations, people, assets and the environment.


Exacting standards That translates to a lot of pressure on each and every valve, and so it’s clear that the standards they’re manufactured to need to be exacting to say the very least. Our valves are engineered to comply with a


variety of requirements, which can comprise BS, EN, API and ISO series’ standards (e.g., API 6A, 6D, 6DSS, 17D; ISO 15848, 10497); UK Pressure Equipment Safety Regulations (PESR); the European Pressure Equipment Directive (PED); relevant regional specifications such as


1 SEPTEMBER 2025 | PROCESS & CONTROL 2


alves play a vital role wherever they’re installed – controlling and isolating fluids and gases at extreme pressures


NORSOK; and any client / end user-specific requirements. To achieve this, BEL Valves’ valves undergo a


tailored sequence of qualification and production tests depending on end use and function, which can comprise: • Hydrostatic testing – Verifies pressure-


boundary integrity • Gas testing – Confirms seat and


body/bonnet leakage limits • Fugitive-emissions testing – Quantifies and


minimises environmental releases • Endurance / cycle testing – Simulates


hundreds of open / close cycles • Hyperbaric cycling – Recreates subsea


hydrostatic pressures • Temperature testing – Assesses


performance from cryogenic lows to extreme highs • Fire testing – Demonstrates containment


and operability under fire conditions If that wasn’t sufficient, advanced non-


destructive examination (radiography, ultrasonics, PMI, dye-penetrant and more) supports each stage of manufacture. Along with safety integrity level (SIL) capability assessments for our safety critical valves and actuators. All type, qualification and factory-


acceptance testing is carried out in BEL Valves’ purpose-built, high-integrity facilities in Newcastle upon Tyne. This means we’re in a position where feedback on testing is rapid and continuous improvement is a key element of the product development lifeline of every single valve we design, engineer and manufacture. And we don’t merely comply with


regulations; we frequently surpass them. For projects with extreme operational scenarios – ultra-deep-water or hydrogen service, for example – valves are tested well beyond the


minimum requirements. Working closely with clients, we design bespoke type tests that replicate field conditions more severe than any standard demands. Of course, not every product we test ends in


success. Occasionally a prototype is pushed past its limits – that’s the point. Whether it’s minor seat leakage or unexpected actuation torque, every anomaly feeds directly into our continuous-improvement loop; driving the development of safer, more reliable products.


Keeping pace The world though doesn’t stand still and so the onus is on manufacturers like ourselves to keep pace with technological developments and changing industry requirements. The shift towards Hydrogen, C02 and other low-carbon fluids is certainly the key focus for us, our competitors and the industry as a whole and is one that is being discussed amongst various industry working groups – the majority of which we participate fully in. The aim of them all being to identify and develop new working practices and drive standardisation – ensuring all new standards are created by those who can rightfully lay claim to being experts in the field. At present, the creation of valves that deliver


greater control of seat leakage and tight shut- off performance; fugitive emissions; fire safety; and metallic and non-metallic material qualification is high on everyone’s agendas. What’s certain during this period of change


is that new standards will be developed and ratified, new products engineered and existing ones modified – ensuring the safety critical operation of the valves used in these high value, high importance installations is never compromised.


BEL Valves www.belvalves.com


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