Valve Inspection and Certification

Valves play a decisive role in industries such as chemical or oil and gas. A dysfunctional valve can, for example, lead to fire disaster causing major loss in the petroleum industry. The compliance with applicable standards and regulations is therefore crucial in order to ensure safety and performance.

Our experts are there to support you. We provide you with comprehensive valve certification and inspection services according to the “Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control” (also known as “TA Luft”) as well as EN ISO 15848-1 and the American Petroleum Institute standards API 607 and API 6FA for valve fire tests. In addition to ensuring safety, the TA Luft and EN ISO 15848-1 certificate allow you to enter the German market.

Access high-tech valve markets worldwide by implementing our valve inspection and testing methods.

Do you need more information on our valve certification and testing services? Do not hesitate and contact us!

With our wide range of valve inspection, testing and certification services we help you to:

• Meet the prerequisites for exporting, selling and launching your products abroad.
• Gain advanced knowledge of valve integrity to enable better planning of production.
• Ensure the compliance of your valves according to relevant standards and regulations.
• Successfully compete on the international market by accessing our extensive global experience and industrial expertise.
• Considerably reduce health, safety and environmental risks.

Please feel free to contact us at TÜV Rheinland to learn more about how our valve inspection services can benefit your company.

Valve inspections and testing provide the foundation to minimize risk in cases of emergency in a variety of industries.

Inspectors authorized by TÜV Rheinland conduct valve leakage testing according to TA Luft and EN ISO 15848-1 on customer-submitted samples in our test laboratory. A test certificate is issued upon successful testing.

Customers must submit new samples in each case of any inconformity with the required standards. Cases compliant with TA Luft and EN ISO 15848-1 will be issued a certificate of conformity.

Entry on the German market requires all valve products to have been tested according to EN ISO 1588-1 and to have proven the acquired TA Luft certificate. Pressure vessel regulations control all market access provisions.

For 6D and 6A valves, we support you with fire tests according to API 607 and API 6FA. Customers submit samples to the testing laboratory where inspectors authorized by TÜV Rheinland carry out a 30-minute combustion test. After testing, inspectors will issue a test certificate. If the test results comply with the applicable standards, we will issue a certificate of conformity. Otherwise, new samples need to be submitted.

The German “Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control" (TA Luft) is a comprehensive air pollution control regulation used to determine whether proposed, new or altered facilities comply with TA Luft and the requirements of other air pollutant emission regulations promulgated under the Federal Pollution Control Act. These instructions serve to protect the general public and the environment from the harmful effects of air pollution. Only those valve products carrying the TA Luft certificate are allowed into the German market.

The EN ISO 15848-1 standard specifies testing procedures for the evaluation of external leakage resulting from valve stem seals (or shaft) and the body joints of isolating valves and control valves intended to be used with volatile air pollutants and hazardous fluids.

The API 607 fire tests establish instances of inner and outer leakage concerning valves with soft-seated plugs.

To determine inner leakage, the valve is closed and externally surrounded by fire for 30 minutes. Valve seats with leakage amounts in conformity with the standard are accepted. This test ensures that after a valve is closed, combustible fluids or gas will not leak to the downstream pipeline in case of fire at a plant.

Testing conducted on valve rod and valve deck mainly refer to outer leakage. Outer leakage found to be in accordance with API 607 minimizes combustible fluid or gas leaking out of the pipeline to eliminate the hazard of further fueling an existing fire.