TLV’S NEW COSPECT VALVE PROVES ITS RELIABILITY IN BLACKPOOL VICTORIA HOSPITAL STERILE SERVICES TRIAL

Phil Black - PII Editor 29/03/2010

212 2 minutes read

Listen to this article

Pressure reducing valves

Three new COSPECT pressure reducing valves from Cheltenham-based steam specialist TLV Euro Engineering have proved their performance and reliability in a recent sterile services trial at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

As in most hospitals the Blackpool Victoria’s steam plant plays a vital role by delivering high quality steam to the hospital’s two autoclaves. Due to the complexity of the autoclaves, when they were installed the hospital’s 7 bar main steam supply was fed into a single pressure reducing valve to reduce it to 4 bar before being fed into two separate pressure reducing valves, which deliver the 2 bar of steam required by each autoclave.

Blackpool Victoria’s technical officer Bill Haughton says that besides requiring frequent and costly maintenance, they proved so unreliable that all three needed to be removed every six months for service kits to be fitted. This involved holding two spare valves costing £2000 each.

With so many problems in such a vital service, it’s no surprise that when TLV Euro Engineering explained the benefits of its COSPECT high precision pressure reducing valve, Bill Haughton was happy to accept the offer of a trial on one of the autoclaves.

Besides having a built-in separator and steam trap to simplify installation, the accuracy of the COSPECT’s secondary set pressure is within ± 0.01 Mpa, which ensures that even if the steam flow to the autoclaves or the primary pressure at the pressure reducing valve changes, the valve’s shock-absorbing spherical piston (SAS) supplies steam at a constant pressure. In practice, this meant that it maintained the temperature of the steam used as the autoclave’s heating source and didn’t require constant adjustment.

In addition, the valve’s separator achieves 98% condensate separation efficiency so any condensate in the steam is separated out. A strainer further removes any scale, and the condensate that is separated out is quickly removed through the built-in free float trap. The noticeable improvement in the quality of the steam also results in an improvement in the heat conductivity of the steam. Maintenance is also simplified thanks the COSPECT’s modular construction and use of PTFE gaskets.

Bill Haughton says the three COSPECT valves have been running continuously now for nine months, delivering high quality steam without needing adjustment or maintenance and are certainly exceeding our expectations.

For more information contact;

TLV Euro Engineering UK Ltd, Cheltenham, Glos.
Tel: +44 (0) 1242 227223 Fax: +44 (0) 1242 223077

E-mail: michaelpovey@tlv.co.uk Web: www.tlv.com