Following customer feedback from Anglo American Oil, it became apparent that although the high-flow Risbridger Anti-Syphon Valve for above ground storage tanks worked extremely well for its targeted high flow markets, Anglo American Oil had purchased the valves for a variety of flow requirements, and had experienced some degree of valve oscillation at lower flow rates. Anglo American Oil overcame the issue by partially closing a series of valves to restrict flow to the pumps at lower filling rates, but the situation was not ideal and impacted on the efficiency of their operations. Keith Robinson and I visited the site and were soon in agreement that the valve design was not well suited for Anglo American Oil requirements and left promising a rapid solution.
After giving the matter some thought our design team came up with a series of modifications and the results have been outstanding. Comparing the performance of the valve to a competitive product we were able to pump up to 230 litres per minute through the Risbridger ASV, and then turn the flow rate down to 12 litres per minute with no oscillation at all from the valve. The very maximum we were able to get through a competitors valve was 109 litres per minute. In addition, at the maximum flow setting the competitors valve would oscillate at low flow rates.
Modified valves were installed on the Anglo American Oil site in Poole and the results were superb. From the very first priming of the pump the new valves performed flawlessly whether one or both of the fuel pumps were running, and both at maximum fill rate or just a few litres per minute when topping off a container. We tried everything we could think of to upset the balance of the valves but they performed perfectly.
Many thanks to Anders Hildebrand at Anglo American Oil and his team who were willing to bear with us during the process. As the result of no blame allocation or finger pointing both companies have come away with benefits. Anders now has a filling system that will maximise its filling potential and Risbridger have an Anti-Syphon valve that will perform across a much wider range of fill requirements without the need for flow restrictions.
For all your ASV solutions – “Go with the Flow”- Risbridger ASV
Chris Godfrey
Operations Manager
