Pressure regulating valve technology has been left behind by foreign countries for 10 years

Pressure regulating valve technology has been left behind by foreign countries for 10 years

When discussing the current situation of China's pressure regulating valve industry, Professor-level Senior Engineers Wang Guangjie and Zhang Yanhui from Beijing Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute believe that although there are many enterprises engaged in the production of regulating valves in China, most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises. minority

Small enterprises lack drawings, processes, and technical personnel, resulting in products that fail to meet national standards and even produce counterfeit and inferior goods. This has severely disrupted the regulating valve market and wasted valuable resources. Many large state-owned enterprises are faced with heavy burdens, financial difficulties, and outdated technology, yet they lack the strength to undertake technological transformation and invest in new projects. The technology of regulating valves lags behind the international advanced level by about 10 years. For example, some high-temperature, high-pressure, and strong corrosion-resistant products cannot be produced. The regulating valves used in offshore oil exploration require no leakage for 10 to 15 years, which we basically cannot meet. Long-distance pipeline transmission main lines still use foreign products, while domestic products can only be used on branch lines.

It is understood that China currently has 2 professional research institutes, 12 factory-run research institutes, and approximately 6,000 scientific researchers engaged in the research and product development of regulating valves on the Pump and Valve Trading Network. There is one ministerial-level testing center and two sub-centers, which are capable of conducting performance tests on safety valves, drain valves, and general regulating valves. However, there is a lack of dynamic simulation test methods and testing equipment for high-performance parameters and high-temperature parameters. There are relatively few scientific research institutions in the regulating valve industry, with less than 10% of the workforce engaged in scientific research. The scientific research and development capabilities are relatively weak, and currently, the industry mainly relies on empirical design methods. In other words, it still mainly relies on referencing some foreign structures and prototypes, carrying out some digestion and absorption work, and there is very little genuine product development work.

Looking at the current technological level of the regulating valve industry abroad, relevant data indicate that over the past few decades, with the development of large-scale complete equipment technology, a series of new complete equipment and prototypes have emerged abroad. The regulating valves that match these equipment also exhibit characteristics of large-scale, high-parameterization, automation, and complete equipment. Moreover, the series of new varieties is constantly increasing. Examples include emergency shut-off valves, quick-closing valves, fire dampers, and water-cooled valves. The basic parameters of regulating valves have been greatly improved. For instance, the maximum diameter of gate valves has reached 4200mm, with a temperature of 1050¡æ and a pressure of 105MPa. For ball valves, the maximum diameter is 3050mm, with a temperature of 1200¡æ and a pressure of 70MPa. Furthermore, foreign regulating valve products come in a wide variety, exhibit good performance, have reliable seals, and have a long lifespan. For example, ball valves can achieve over 100,000 cycles without leakage. Cast iron gate valves can be opened and closed 30,000 times with reliable action and rapid switching.

In recent years, research institutes specializing in control valves have developed rapidly abroad. In the United States alone, there are nearly 30 such institutes, which are generally affiliated with companies. For example, Rockwell has a well-established research and testing base that can conduct performance tests on products in various aspects such as thermal state, dynamics, wear resistance, shock resistance, fire resistance, and reliability. The finite element method and computer-aided design have been widely applied, making the structural design of control valves more reasonable.

In comparison, the technology of China's regulating valve industry is relatively backward. Pressure regulating valve products are mainly concentrated in the mid-to-low-end market, and the level of research and development for high-end products is not high. The main gap lies in the fact that the current technological level of China's regulating valve industry is only equivalent to that of the early 1990s abroad. The level of complete sets of equipment is low, for example, currently only capable of meeting the needs of valves for thermal power stations with a capacity of 200,000 to 300,000 kW and ethylene plants with a capacity of 450,000 t/a. Valves for thermal power stations with a capacity of 600,000 kW, ethylene plants with a capacity of 700,000 t/a, and even those with a capacity of 1,000,000 t/a still need to be imported in large quantities.

Industry insiders reveal that globally, there is a wide range of drive devices for regulating valves (electric, pneumatic, hydraulic, electro-hydraulic, or pneumatic-hydraulic, etc.), with complete specifications, safety, and reliability. In recent years, intelligent drive devices have also been developed, but this area remains unexplored domestically. Overall, the domestic regulating valve industry lags significantly behind its foreign counterparts. This is evident in technology, where product design remains outdated and unchanged for many years, with weak new product development capabilities and limited specifications and varieties, unable to meet various needs