Accelerating Internationalization: Attention Required for China's Ceramic Valve Standards

Valve products are widely used in petroleum, chemical, nuclear power, metallurgy, electric power, hydropower, large-scale coal chemical and other industries. With continuous growth of total valve output, technological iteration and expanding application fields, the importance of valve-related standards has become increasingly prominent. This article elaborates on standard development overview, system composition, current status, standard adoption and development trends.

1. Standard Adoption in China's Valve Industry

Adopting international and advanced foreign standards is an important national standardization policy. The valve industry actively implements this policy, converting and referencing a large number of international and advanced foreign standards in basic, method and product standards, effectively improving the overall technical level of domestic valve standards.

(1) Adoption of International Standards

Most international standards have been converted into domestic Chinese standards to varying degrees. Some international standards have not yet been converted, and a few that do not fit domestic practical conditions are not adopted.

(2) Adoption of Advanced Foreign Standards

Along with implementation of major domestic projects such as long-distance pipelines, the American Petroleum Institute (API) series of standards has gained wide attention in China. API is a non-profit organization representing the entire petroleum industry chain in the United States covering exploration, development, storage, transportation, refining and marketing, and its standards are widely referenced globally. So far, 17 API valve standards have been converted or are in the process of conversion into Chinese national and industry standards. Meanwhile, combined with actual domestic working conditions, domestic valve standards also incorporate references from MSS, AWWA, ASME, BS, JIS and other overseas associations and advanced national standards.

Through conversion of ISO and advanced foreign standards, the technical level of China's valve standards has been significantly improved, narrowing the gap between domestic products and advanced overseas products. The quality of some conventional valve products has reached or even surpassed comparable foreign products.

2. Development Trends of Valve Standards

(1) Strengthen linkage between standards and scientific research projects, promote standardization of innovation achievements

The National Valve Standardization Technical Committee is organizing the drafting of the national standard Intelligent Electric Actuators for Valves. Intelligent electric valve actuators are new products developed overseas in the early 2000s. Through technology introduction, digestion and independent R&D, China has fully mastered relevant technologies, and multiple domestic enterprises have achieved mass production with excellent product quality. Formulating the high-tech national standard Intelligent Electric Actuators for Valves is of great significance for promoting industrial upgrading and reducing import dependence.

Formalizing new products and technologies into standards can lower production costs, optimize product performance, help new technologies quickly gain market recognition and promote overall industry technological progress.

(2) Promote formulation of energy-saving and new-material standards to facilitate industrial restructuring

Given limited domestic natural resources, formulating valve standards related to power, water and material conservation is an important industry development direction. Accelerate elimination of high-energy-consumption, low-efficiency obsolete products, adjust industrial structure and support promotion and implementation of new technologies and products.

In the material-conservation direction, focus on developing new substitute materials to replace traditional steel and precious metals. New ceramic valves use engineering ceramics for sealing and wearing parts, greatly improving valve wear resistance, corrosion resistance and sealing performance and extending service life. Ceramic production raw materials are widely available with low cost. High-performance ceramic materials can be produced from common elements such as aluminum, carbon and silicon, saving large amounts of metal and scarce mineral resources. Ceramic valves are widely used in power generation, petroleum, chemical, metallurgy, mining and wastewater treatment industries, featuring excellent wear and sealing performance, minimizing medium leakage and making positive contributions to ecological environment protection. Keeping pace with technological development, the valve standardization committee has compiled and released the industry standard Ceramic Sealing Valves JB/T10529-2005 (now updated to JB/T10529-2020), promoting standardized application of ceramic sealing technology.

In the energy-consumption reduction direction, focus on developing low flow-resistance and low-loss valve products. For power saving, valve electric actuators adopt low-energy-consumption and low-noise motors and optimized structural design to reduce equipment energy consumption.

(3) Deeply participate in international standardization and expand conversion of international standards

Against economic globalization, standard internationalization is an inevitable trend. It is necessary to study the correlation between ISO standards and China's valve standards, clarify the current domestic adoption status, define adoption direction and expand adoption scope. Meanwhile, strive for substantive participation in international standardization, export domestic technological achievements and compete for a greater say in international standards. At present, ISO/TC153 valve technical committee is dominated by European and American organizations. The National Valve Standardization Technical Committee actively attends and hosts international standard meetings on one hand, and on the other hand assigns domestic experts to join international TC, SC and WG working groups, carefully participates in voting on international standard drafts, actively submits proposals in line with actual domestic industrial conditions to the ISO/TC153 secretariat, and promotes absorption of China's reasonable technical demands into international standards.

(4) Strengthen valve product safety standards to protect equipment and personal safety

Large numbers of valves are installed in pressure pipeline systems where product safety is crucial. The State Administration for Market Regulation has issued the Special Equipment Safety Technical Specification. Valves belong to pressure pipeline components and are included in the special-equipment supervision scope. Two main causes of valve safety accidents: first, products fail to meet standard requirements, including defective shell wall thickness, welding inspection and material indicators; second, improper on-site installation, use and operation. The National Valve Standardization Technical Committee attaches great importance to safety clauses in product standards. Relevant technical requirements are referenced by special-equipment specifications to form mandatory constraints, safeguarding equipment and personnel safety. The committee has recently initiated drafting of standards including Specification for Minimum Shell Wall Thickness of Valves and General Requirements for Installation, Use and Maintenance of Industrial Valves. Revision of safety clauses in valve products will be a priority in future standardization work.