We successfully delivered 16” and 20” #2500 Gate Valves to UTE Pecem Itaqui Power Project in Brazil being built by Doosan Babcock, UK.

The valves comply to ASME B16.34 and ASME 31.1 and are specially designed for steam applications. The range extends from #900 to #4500, including intermediate classes, in sizes up to 28”. Gate, Globe and Check valves are available in various materials including ASTM A217 Gr. C12A equivalent for P91/92 piping used in high-pressure steam lines.

Features & benefits:

• The parallel-slide gate assembly with disc springs provides better sealing, lower torques and eliminates the chance of disc jamming
• The full-bore construction minimizes pressure drop across the valve
• Pillar Yoke arrangement enables easy access to gland packing and bonnet for maintenance
• Hard facing of 3mm thickness helps withstand severe service conditions
• Larger wear travel allowance guarantees longer service life

L&T High Pressure Power Valves are designed and manufactured by L&T’s modern plant at Coimbatore. The plant is equipped with machining centres, modern assembly and testing facilities and can handle assemblies of weight up to 40 tons.

R Shankar

The first lot of 3-piece ball valves designed by Fluid Control Products Centre (FCPC) and manufactured at L&T’s facility in Coimbatore was dispatched this November to our stockists all over India. 

3-piece ball valves are manufactured in the size range of DN8 up to DN50 in both full bore and reduced bore designs. The order mainly consisted of ball valves of size DN15 and body material WCB.

The 3-piece design is ideally suited for easy online maintenance as the center portion can swing out eliminating the need to cut a valve out of line and having to replace both the valve and the pipe.

L&T Valves has successfully initiated the frame of agreement with Saipem, a turnkey contractor in the oil and gas industry. This agreement will pave a way for increased business between L&T Valves and Saipem in European market in coming years.
 
The official signed agreement was handed over on 27th October 2009 in Chennai at a gathering comprising of officials from L&T and Saipem.

Saipem
1) Mr. Gianfranco Bellitto, Managing Director
2) Mr. Joel F.RUAUX, Director, Procurement & Subcontractiong Department
3) Mr. Andrea Merello, Procurement, Competence Centre leader
4) Mr. Karthikeyan K, General Manager, Procurement
5) Mr. Ramadoss R, Deputy General Manager, Procurement
6) Mr. Inderjit Sikand, General Manager, Piping
7) Mr. Ravi Teja V, Deputy General Manager, Piping
 
L&T Valves
1) A Shivkumar, Unit Head
2) SP Rajanish, Head International Sales
3) S Kalyanaraman, Head Domestic Sales
4) Mariappan M, Head Europeans Operations
5) Rahul Don Rudy H, Engineer Sales.

Larsen & Toubro with its associate and JV’s  Audco India Limited (India) and Larsen & Toubro (Jiangsu) valve company limited (China) participated in the global valve industry event, The Valve World Conference and Expo. The event was held in Suzhou, People’s Republic of China on 23rd and 24th September 2009.

Suzhou, renowned for its beautiful gardens and stone bridges, played host to the expo that drew end users, consultants, contractors, and suppliers from various parts of the world. It was as an ideal platform for the manufacturers to showcase their capabilities and interact with their customers, both existing and potential. The sales personnel present at the stall gave new customers an overview of the company and its capabilities. This was further aided by the descriptive photo-panels and an audio-visual presentation that spoke in length about the prowess of L&T and Audco India in engineering, manufacturing, marketing and customer service.

The conference that ran concurrently, gave the participants an opportunity to learn from the presenters and also interact and establish new contacts with members of the international flow-control fraternity.
Displayed in L&T’s stall were a 16” Class 1500 three-piece pipeline ball valve, an 18” Class 150 triple-offset butterfly valve and a 14” Class 150 Gate Valve.

Visitors to the stall included key personnel from the major oil & gas, power, chemical and petrochemical companies and global EPC contractors.

Delegates from Toshiba Power, Japan audited L&T’s Valve manufacturing facility in India, Audco India Limited’s Manapakkam plant in Chennai. The visitors evaluated the capabilities of L&T for the supply of valves for a state of the art 4×800 mw power project in Ratnagiri, India.

For this project, the entire range of gate, globe and check valves supplied to Reliance Jamnagar Export Refinery were standardize as per the specifications of Bechtel.

The last package of Reliance was for Forged Steel Valves. It was a large order with very tight delivery schedule. Our project management team of engineers worked day and night in order to meet the dead line of the client. The Forged Steel GGC valves were supplied in midyear 2008 as per schedule and Reliance was very happy with L&T’s delivery performance and awarded us with repeat orders.

We at L&T even meet the unforeseen immediate requirement at the JERP site by supplying large size valves at unimaginable delivery time. For instance 10 nos of 48” #300 Gate valves were supplied in just 10 weeks time.

One of the major criteria of the client for butterfly valves is the UL certification. All butterfly valves supplied to JERP were specially certified for UL marking. (Standard – UL 1091, 6th Edition, June 2004. Reference Standard – BPE SPEC 007C Rev 1). We used special elastomers to qualify our butterfly valves for UL marking.

Valves in two different sizes were selected, one in the lower range (size 4” PN 16) and the other in the higher range (size 24” PN 16) to ensure that the entire range of butterfly valves qualify in the bidding process.

There are four categories of butterfly valves supplied to JERP and they are: 
- Wafer type Rubber Lined Butterfly valves from 2” to 10”
- Double Flanged Butterfly valves from 12” to 24”
- VWS valves of sizes 26” to 54”.
- Triple Offset Butterfly Valves of Sizes 3” to 54”.

With this, we conclude our journey with the Reliance JERP team.  L&T is extremely happy for its association with Reliance Industries and thank each and every person who supported us through this journey to successfully complete the project.

It was in mid 2006 that we started working on the second supply for JERP.

The design had to be modified to meet the commercial and technical specifications of the customer. Similar to that of the first ball valve order, here again we submitted the General Assembly drawings, ITP and reference list of our previous experience in supplying valves to the various Oil refineries across the globe.

With L&T being an Integrated Valve Supplier for all Oil & Gas project requirements and a Single Point valve sourcing solution provider, in order complete the total package for JERP; we procured Cast Iron and Tin Bronze valves from other sources.

Our supply comprised of Carbon steel, Alloy Steel and SS GGC valves.  The total order quantity exceeded 75000 pieces in various MOC’s like WCB, WC6, WC9, C5, C12, CF8M, CF3, CF8, CF8C, etc

We supplied valves in all the class ranges from #150 to #2500 in sizes ranging from 2 inches to 60 inches.

With JERP being one of the most prestigious orders for L&T, we customized many of our offerings to suite the requirements of Reliance. Many valves were developed specifically for this project. To mention few

- Globe Valves with Guided Disc design and in-situ seat
- Swing Check valves with Integral Hinge Disc.
- #150 valves with a gasket of Corrugated SS316 + Graphite

In fact, we manufactured a wide range of Dual Plate Check Valves of sizes ranging from 3 inch to 36 inch especially for this project to bag the complete package of DPCV’s.

We supplied GGC Valves in special MOC’s, especially in CN7M and Inconel 625. We bagged the single largest order for Alloy 20 (CN7M) Cast Steel Gate Globe Check Valve order with a quantity close to 5000 valves.  For the order on CN7M, we supplied valves in sizes ranges from 2” to 16” in class ratings from #150 to #600.

The next issue will provide further insight of these products.

In June 2006 we bagged the first order for Ball valves. Along with the first package consisting of 1000 Ball valves and a value close to 15 Crs, we also faced very stringent delivery schedules. Thanks to the efforts of the sales and production team, the entire package was delivered within a very shot lead-time.

Making a sale is a huge task but executing the order is much more larger and challenging. Each and every stage of this project execution was challenging. Right from obtaining approvals for drawings and ITP’s to completing the NDT procedures for various MOC’s.

Our supply for Floating Ball valves comprised of standard single piece valves to Cryogenic special application valves.

We supplied close to 5000 valves in Floating Ball range alone, in varied material of construction like WCB, LCB and SS in standard trim materials like A105 and SS as well as in higher trims like Monel. Size ranges from ¾” to 14” in different types of construction such as Single Piece, Two Piece and Three Piece in Class #150 and #300.

Ball valves mounted with accessories like Limit Switches, Extension Nipples, and Standard Extended Bonnets were also supplied to JERP. Critical valves such as cryogenic ball valves tested stringently at -196 degree Celsius were also supplied to JERP.

Trunnion Mounted Ball Valves (TMBV) manufactured to the latest international designs, using advanced manufacturing techniques also found application at the JERP site. L&T has over 15 years of experience in supplying Pipeline Ball Valves for various applications in Pipelines, Oil and Gas exploration, Production Facilities and also in Process industries.

The bidding for TMBV began along with the Floating Ball valves. Over 1500 Trunnion mounted ball valves in varied material of construction (from WBC to LCB); pressure classes #150 to #600 and size ranges 4” to 24” are installed at the Jamnagar Refinery of Reliance. 

The second award from Reliance was the Alloy Steel Gate, Globe and Check Valves (GGC) with a total package value close to 50 crs. To know more, await next issue.

We at VBG, were involved in the groundwork of this Jamnagar Export Refinery Project (JERP) since 2002, while the enquiries started flowing in early 2006. Submitting our bids for the entire quantity with all the necessary documents such as drawings for each line item, ITP’s, reference lists, technical manuals and procedures etc was very challenging and enormous.

A total quantity close to one lakh valves, order value of multiple crores spread over 2 years and 50 purchase orders …one could imagine the number of man-hours spent in execution and completion of this project. Now, we are at the tail end of this project with very few valves to be delivered.

The bidding started in the month of February 06 when we actually took it as a challenge to acquire a major part of this order and things likewise fell in place.

After long technical negotiations and price debates, the bidding went on for almost one and half months. It at last ended with a breakthrough order for Ball Valves in June 06.

We bagged the first package of 1000 nos of Ball Valves in the month of June’06 with a value of approximately 15 Crs with very tight delivery schedules.

The Ball Valves marketed by us have an international reputation for high integrity in critical services. These valves are manufactured to international standards using modern production and quality assurance techniques.

Ball Valves supplied are categorized as:
- Floating Ball and
- Trunnion Mounted Ball Valves including valves for Low temp service – close to 1500 nos. (Size range – 4” to 24” in the class ratings #150 to #600).

Await next issue for an elucidation on this first order of ball valves.

Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly’… these words of Dhirubhai Ambani not only stand testimony to the massive growth of Reliance industries but also motivates every human being to strive harder.

We at the Valves Business Group of L&T really strived hard and today enjoy a wonderful relationship with Reliance.

Reliance Industries is India’s largest private sector company. They operate the third largest refinery in the world at any single location, with a capacity of 30 million tons per year or 0.6 million barrels per day of crude throughput, at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

Reliance Petroleum Limited has set up a Greenfield petroleum refinery and polypropylene plant in a Special Economic Zone in Jamnagar in the state of Gujarat in western India. This refinery and polypropylene plant has been set up adjacent to the existing refinery and petrochemical complex of Reliance Industries Limited.

Today, the whole world is aware of this massive Reliance Jamnagar Export Refinery project. Mass media has brought to light the supplies made by L&T for this Greenfiled project.  And now, as we near completion, here’s how the whole story began…

It was a big challenge to bid for this huge expansion project that is one of its kind. Needless to say about Reliance Refinery, which spreads over 8400 acres with eight companies.

Before we get into the real story, here is a brief on the Jamnagar refinery, a place where our engineers have spent several days and nights together.  The Jamnagar refinery is considered the World’s largest single location refinery complex, with a capacity to process almost 2 percent of the world’s crude oil. Handling a team of 7500 people working from several interconnected locations across the world, JERP has finally started its process now.

According to sources, when the new 580,000 barrel-a-day refinery project is completed, the total capacity for the RIL-RPL Jamnagar site will be more than 1.2 million barrels per day.

Engineering, construction and project management company Bechtel Corporation, UK is using Bentley’s Project wise system in building JERP. According to sources, the Bechtel team that was roped in to designing the project had approx 300 Engineers working for this project.

Offering a customized solution to meet the requirements of any project is what distinguishes a valve manufacturer from the rest. And we are extremely proud to have supplied flow control products for this project, which provides significant benefits to the Indian economy from its Special Economic Zones.

To begin with, we acquired majority share of the valves required for this project with the quantity close to one lakh valves.

We are eager to share this success story of how we progressed step by step in completing this order. More, in the next issue!