Pardon the pun, but check valves are fairly straight forward -- they ensure flow in only one direction. In most designs, the upstream fluid force pushes a spring-loaded poppet open, allowing flow. An increase in downstream or back-pressure force drives the poppet back into the seat, stopping reverse flow. But their simplicity shouldn’t be taken for granted. Chemical Processing spoke with Brian Strait, Business Development and Marketing Manager at Check-All Valve Mfg. Co., and learned that not all check valves are created equally. 

One of the most commonly used compounds in the chemical industry is water – not only as a solvent in processing, but also as an energy carrier in the cooling or heating cycle. Monitoring water quality can predict performance and protect equipment.

Chemical Processing spoke with Amanda Scott, product management leader for the Sievers* product line at SUEZ --Water Technologies & Solutions, we discovered how implementing critical control points, such as total organic carbon (TOC) analyzers for monitoring closed-loop cooling water systems, can help ensure efficiency and productivity.

Many chemical companies are striving to improve the reliability of vacuum systems, lower total cost of ownership and meet regulatory requirements for emissions standards and noise reduction. To address these demands as well as specific vacuum technology problems, vendors are responding with novel applications of established equipment as well as new technologies.

Enter dry vacuum pumps. Chemical Processing chatted with Busch Vacuum Solutions’ Jason Stiel, Ph.D., chemical and pharmaceutical sales manager, about the benefits and challenges of dry vacuum pumps.

What are human factors? Dave Strobhar -- founder and principal-human-factors engineer for Beville Engineering – defines human factors and offers sound advice going forward.

In this Minute Clinic, we tackle font size requirements in regard to alarm management.

This Minute Clinic episode offers straight-forward solutions to help operators make better decisions. 

Diagrams and line labeling could save thousands of dollars when it comes to operator performance.

In this Minute Clinic, we learn how to calculate total operators required to cover a post position. 

Many companies use targets to drive design and that can lead to negative consequences.

In today’s Minute Clinic, we learn about alarm redundancy without alarm duplication.