Accelerating Internationalization: Standards for China's Ceramic Valve Industry Must Be Regulated

Valve products are widely used in petroleum, chemical, nuclear power, metallurgy, power, hydropower, large coal chemical and other industries. With continuous growth of total valve output, ongoing technological development and expanding application fields, corresponding valve standards have become increasingly prominent in importance. This article introduces the development overview, system composition, current status, standard adoption and development trends of valve standards from the following aspects.

1. Standard Adoption in China's Valve Industry

Adopting international standards and advanced foreign standards is an important standardization policy in China. The valve industry has actively implemented this policy, adopting a large number of international and advanced foreign standards in basic standards, method standards and product standards, improving the technical level of China's valve standards.

(1) Adoption of International Standards

As can be seen from the above table, most international standards have been converted into Chinese standards to varying degrees. However, some have not yet been converted, and a few international standards that do not quite fit China's national conditions will not be converted.

(2) Adoption of Advanced Foreign Standards

With the construction and implementation of key projects such as long-distance pipelines in China, standards from the American Petroleum Institute (API) have received increasing attention in China. API is a non-profit organization representing the interests of exploration, development, storage and transportation, refining and marketing across the US petroleum industry, and its standards are widely adopted internationally. Currently, 17 API valve standards have been converted or are being converted into China's national and industry standards. In addition, combined with the specific conditions of domestic and foreign standards, Chinese standards also adopt some standards from advanced countries and associations such as MSS, AWWA, ASME, BS and JIS.

Through the adoption of ISO and advanced foreign standards, the level of Chinese standards has been greatly improved, narrowing the gap between valve products and advanced foreign products. For some conventional products, quality has even reached or exceeded that of comparable foreign products.

2. Development Trends of Valve Standards

(1) Strengthen the connection between standards and scientific research, especially national major science and technology projects, guide research institutions and technologically advanced backbone enterprises to transform independent innovation achievements into standards, and promote the development of new technologies and processes.

The National Valve Standardization Technical Committee is currently formulating the national standard Intelligent Electric Actuators for Valves. Intelligent electric valve actuators are new products developed overseas at the beginning of this century. Through introduction and R&D, China has mastered this technology and developed very rapidly. Yangzhou Electric Power Repair & Manufacturing, Tianjin Er Tong, Wenzhou Rotork and Changzhou Power Station Auxiliary Machinery are all capable of production, with quite good product quality. Formulating a high-tech standard for Intelligent Electric Actuators for Valves plays a significant role in promoting industry development and blocking or reducing imported products.

Transforming a batch of new products and new technologies into standards reduces costs, improves benefits, optimizes product functions, enables new products and technologies to quickly gain market recognition and promotes industrial progress.

(2) Develop standards in energy saving, consumption reduction and new materials to promote industrial structure adjustment.

China has limited natural resources, so formulating standards on power, water and material conservation is one of the development directions of valve standards. Accelerate the elimination of low-efficiency and high-energy-consumption products, adjust the industrial structure and promote the development and application of new technologies and new products.

In terms of material conservation, valves focus on researching new materials and replacing metal materials with new materials to save steel and precious metals.

New ceramic valves use new ceramic materials for valve sealing and wearing parts, improving valve wear resistance, corrosion resistance and sealing performance, greatly extending valve service life.

Ceramic raw materials are widely available and low in cost. High-performance ceramic materials can be produced using common elements such as aluminum, carbon and silicon, saving large amounts of metal materials and scarce mineral resources. Ceramic valves are applied in power, petroleum, chemical, metallurgy, mining, wastewater treatment and other industrial fields. With excellent wear resistance and good sealing performance, they minimize leakage and make positive contributions to environmental protection. Keeping pace with technological development, the valve standardization committee has organized the formulation of the Ceramic Sealing Valves (JB/T10925-2005) standard to accelerate the promotion of ceramic sealing technology and the development of ceramic sealing materials.

In terms of reducing energy consumption, vigorously develop valve products with low flow resistance and low loss. In terms of power saving, the focus is on valve electric actuators, controlling energy consumption through the selection of low-energy-consumption, low-noise motors and structural improvements to electric actuators.

(3) Actively participate in international standard activities and accelerate the conversion of international valve standards.

The world has entered an era of economic globalization, and the inevitable trend of economic globalization is the internationalization of standards. Through research on the correlation between ISO standards and China's valve standards, we can gain an overall understanding of China's valve standard adoption status, determine the adoption direction and increase adoption efforts. At the same time, strive for substantive participation in international standardization work, integrate Chinese standards into international standards and compete for the voice and leadership in international standards. Due to historical and regional reasons, ISO/TC153 "Valves" has formed a pattern dominated by Europe and the United States. Therefore, the National Valve Standardization Technical Committee actively participates in and hosts international standard meetings on the one hand, and on the other hand actively dispatches Chinese experts to join the standard committees "TC", subcommittees "SC" and working groups "WG" of international organizations, earnestly handles voting on international standard drafts, and provides clauses favorable to China to the ISO/TC153 secretariat so that international standards can reflect our reasonable requirements.

(4) Improve the safety of valve products to protect the safety of equipment and personnel. Many valves are used in pressure pipelines, where safety is crucial. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has issued the Special Equipment Safety Technical Specification. As a type of pressure pipeline component, valves are also included in special equipment. Safety accidents caused by valve products mainly have two causes: first, products do not meet standard requirements, such as shell wall thickness requirements, flaw detection requirements at welded connections and material requirements; second, improper installation and use. The National Valve Standardization Technical Committee has always attached importance to safety requirements in product standards. These requirements are cited in the Special Equipment Safety Technical Specification and become mandatory requirements, thereby maximizing the safety of equipment and personnel. In recent years, the valve standardization committee has successively applied to formulate standards such as Specification for Minimum Shell Wall Thickness Requirements of Valves and General Requirements for Installation, Use and Maintenance of Industrial Valves. Safety requirements in valve product standards and the formulation and revision of valve safety standards will be a focus of future work.