Investing in a well-planned and consistent valve maintenance program means looking beyond simply attending to necessary repairs and reactive maintenance.
To deliver first-rate valve maintenance, water boards and councils must continue to up-skill their maintenance teams and utilise this information to implement a dedicated valve maintenance program.
Benefits of a Valve Maintenance Program
Any valve maintenance program should incorporate sets of standard operating procedures, including specifications for creating and updating valve maintenance schedules, planning, recording, and tracking the progress of maintenance work. It’s also important to have clear safety measures in place for undertaking maintenance activities.
Valve maintenance programs provide crucial information to make informed decision and should accommodate water networks without affecting routine workflows.
A first-rate valve maintenance program helps to:
- Minimise expensive repairs through proactive maintenance – extending the life of existing valves by rehabilitating existing assets
- Reduce water loss through the ability to isolate parts of a system in an emergency – the ability to switch off valves and isolate parts that need repair
- Reduced labour costs – work smarter by embracing technology, giving greater oversight on valve maintenance activities
- Training of staff – investing in education gives your staff greater confidence to manage the valve maintenance process
- Improve safety by removing the need to manually operate valves, ensuring smart, safe operation
At Valvemax, we’re experts in controlled water and integrated solutions. We can assist you to design and develop a Valve Maintenance Program and education through training to give you confidence that your valve exercising program is up to date and a real asset for your organisation.
Valve Maintenance awareness issues
With a vast network of water supply across a country as large as Australia, it’s not uncommon for valves to rest idle for years, possibly even decades between operation. A valve which has been neglected from regular maintenance is also likely to suffer from issues such as corrosion and component failure.
Furthermore, understanding the condition of your network’s critical valves enhances your ability to effectively control water flow within the water distribution system. Having this knowledge can allow you to further extend the valve life and quickly locate valves in the network when operation and repairs are required.
In establishing a valve maintenance program there are some areas of concern that any operator should be aware of are:
- Larger valves that may require more effort to turn and exercise and can take more time to open. When performing valve maintenance, issues may arise such as operator fatigue or injury. To avoid potential injury, mechanical aids, and tools, including mobile valve exercising should be used. This helps with safety and is often a faster, better approach to manual exercising.
- Exercising shouldn’t be put off or delayed and having adequate safety measures and procedures in place is also a major aspect of any professional valve maintenance program. This is where organisation can protect their most valuable assets – their people – and see the true value of having a valve maintenance program.
The true value of a valve maintenance program
While the benefits of valve maintenance are easy to see, setting a process for routine maintenance as well as assessment are vital to the ongoing upkeep of any water network. Conducting ongoing valve condition assessments provides greater insights for future performance and maintenance.
The true value of a maintenance program is to be able to be proactive and perform scheduled maintenance rather than perform reactive, ad-hoc repairs, often under duress. With regular scheduled maintenance, there is greater control and oversight of the networks.
In addition, through routine valve maintenance water boards and councils achieve clear visibility and reporting of asset condition. This offers a better understanding of valves that may require additional maintenance and helps adhere to regulatory compliance. Having up to date asset and condition report data better helps management to prioritise budget spend and adjust forecasts accordingly.
Be proactive, not reactive
A proper valve maintenance program relies on being able to leverage data and information in real time to provide flexibility and to allow water boards and councils to remain agile.
Valve maintenance is now advancing and embracing the use of technology to be able to solve potential issues and use data to inform future maintenance events. This helps avoid costly damages and repairs and reduces water loss and reduces labour costs.
The Valvemax team is adaptable and able to mobilise quickly to provide proactive and reactive valve exercising service. Combining years of experience with industry leading technical support and guidance, our technicians can complete valve exercising programs reliably across the country.
At Valvemax, we partner to provide quality, controlled water with smart and integrated turnkey solutions, including training programs.
Contact Valvemax today to discuss your valve maintenance program.
