Unibloc-Pump, Inc. acquired a company in Germany, R&H GmbH. The new company will be named Unibloc-Pump R&H GmbH. The company now has two locations in Europe with its world headquarters in Marietta, Georgia.

With Unibloc-Pump, as a US pump manufacturer, and its Swedish sister company, Unibloc Pump AB, the combined merger will give it a strong presence in Europe for road tanker pumps.

Founded in 1984, Unibloc-Pump, Inc. has been a worldwide producer of sanitary pumps, strainers and valves.

New Facility

Conval Inc. Moves Into New Plant

Conval recently moved into its new 72,000 square foot advanced manufacturing center in Enfield, CT. With all operations under one roof and 40 percent more capacity than the former three-building Somers campus, the new facility will allow for new processes to be added, future expansion of the product line and significant company growth.

Crane ChemPharma and Energy Opens New Indian Plant

Crane ChemPharma & Energy celebrated the inauguration of its newest location, an aseptic diaphragm valve factory in Satara, India. Crane invited hundreds of customers and industry stakeholders to participate in a day-long event complete with a tour of the new plant and luncheon held on May 10, 2018. Built within the same complex as two other Crane factories, one for Saunders Industrial Diaphragm Valves and another for CentreLine Butterfly Valves, the new facility will be 100 percent dedicated to Saunders HC4 aseptic diaphragm valves and actuators.

Finance

GE to Sell Share in Baker Hughes

General Electric said it will spin off its health-care business and divest its stake in oil-services company Baker Hughes, leaving the once-sprawling conglomerate focused on jet engines, power plants, and renewable energy.

The company will spin off the profitable healthcare unit over the next 12 to 18 months, and sell its Baker Hughes stake over two to three years.

GE bought Baker Hughes in July 2017 and combined it with the GE oil and gas equipment and services operations to create a new company in which GE holds a stake of about 62.5 percent. The unit reported sales of $17.23 billion in 2017.

Chromatic Industries Signs License Agreement with Curtis-Wright Flow Control

Chromatic Industries, LLC (“Chromatic”) announced that Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corporation (“Curtiss-Wright”) acquired a license to use its patented valve technology within the nuclear power generation market. Curtiss-Wright determined that Chromatic’s unique design features provided the best solution for its applications relative to other competing valve technologies.

People

ValvTechnologies Appoints New V.P. for Key Accounts

ValvTechnologies, Inc. has appointed Ron Anselmo as vice president, key accounts. Based in Houston, Anselmo will have senior management responsibility for sales growth through the development and management of executive, technical and commercial relationships for key accounts with major customers, licensors and engineering firms.

Anselmo started his career with Amoco Oil and held leadership roles in engineering, operations (fractionation, coking, reside hydro processing, reformulation), maintenance, project management and construction. He was a GE global commercial sales leader for strategic development and licensing of large complex integrated combined cycle gasification facilities. Most recently, he was with Calpine Corporation.

CPV Hires New VP Sales and New Director of Engineering

CPV Manufacturing announced that Jay H. Loomis has been named vice president of sales. Loomis will be responsible for the expansion and development of CPV’s sales team.

“Jay’s customer-focused sales and account management style are a great fit for our leadership team,” said David London, president of CPV Manufacturing. “His background will be significant in carrying us forward. We’re glad to have him on our team.”

Prior to joining CPV, Loomis was a national account manager at Airgas USA where, as a single point of contact, he maintained and nurtured customer relationships on a national level. His sales and account management experience span three decades.

Loomis obtained his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He continues to be an active member of his local community

Robert Cardona has been named director of engineering. Cardona will be responsible for managing the engineering team and for overseeing all engineering projects.

Cardona has more than 32 years of experience in manufacturing environments. Most recently he was a senior engineer at Productive Plastics. Prior to that, he was at Smart-Hose Technologies where he also served as a senior engineer. He has four patents under his belt and played a significant role in the design of systems and components for the Aegis Radar System.

Cardona received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University. He proudly served in the United States Army and the US Air Force Civil Air Patrol.

New Metso President and CEO

Metso's Board of Directors has appointed Pekka Vauramo (born 1957, M.Sc. (Tech.)), President and CEO of Metso, effective as of November 2018 at the latest. Pekka Vauramo has served as President and CEO of Finnair since 2013, and prior to that he held several management positions at Cargotec (2007-2013) and Sandvik (1985-2007).

According to Mikael Lilius, Chair of Metso's Board of Directors, Vauramo will bring the right kind of competence and experience to Metso. "Pekka Vauramo has a proven track record in leading businesses facing competitive global markets, and he has long and extensive experience in the mining industry and in an international business environment. His experience is a good fit for Metso, which has achieved solid momentum this year with its new and goal-oriented organization and management team. The Board is confident that Pekka is the right person to lead the company forward with its current strategy and create added value for its customers and shareholders," Lilius says.

CFO Eeva Sipilä will continue to serve as Metso's interim CEO until Pekka Vauramo begins in his new role.

Siemens Appoints New US Head

Siemens Corporation announced Barbara Humpton has been appointed CEO for the United States, effective June 1, 2018. Humpton (57) is currently CEO of Siemens Government Technologies, Inc. (SGT), a Federally-compliant U.S. organization structured to help address national imperatives in energy, infrastructure, automation and marine platforms.

Humpton joined Siemens Government Technologies in 2011 as Senior Vice President for Business Development and was appointed to lead the company’s approach to the federal market in 2015. Prior to joining Siemens, Humpton held senior leadership positions at Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton, where she was a Vice President at both firms.

Circor Energy Announces New President

Circor International, Inc., Industrial, Energy, and Aerospace & Defense markets, announced that Lane Walker has joined Circor as President of its Energy Group based in Houston, effective June 4, 2018. Prior to joining Circor, Mr. Walker served in a number of senior leadership roles for Schlumberger, including most recently President, Testing Services based in Clamart, France, where he managed Schlumberger’s downhole and surface testing business. He replaces Erik Wiik, who is no longer with Circor.

Prior to joining Schlumberger, Mr. Walker served as President, Production Systems at OneSubsea, a Schlumberger Company, and in several senior management positions at Cameron International, which was subsequently acquired by Schlumberger. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Projects

APCO Slanting Disc Check Valves Successful in U.S. Dry Dock Location

The US Navy wanted to replace three slanting (tilting) disc check valves that were installed on a dry dock in a shipyard in the Northwest United States. The valves were originally installed in the World War II era, and now, after almost 70 years of service, the body walls of the valves had eroded so extensively that repairing the valves was no longer an option. What made this application particularly challenging was that these valves were installed in a cement vault that had no extra space. Because of the unique two-piece body design and slanted disc orientation of the APCO Slanting Disc Check valve, the body patterns could be modified to pour castings to match the laying length of the original valve, while maintaining all other elements of structural integrity.

Ringo Valvulas Sells Control Valves to Spanish Nuclear Power Plant

Ringo Válvulas has concluded the design, manufacturing and testing of self operated control valves for the air supply emergency system for the actuators of certain critical valves of Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant in Spain. These comprise 17 self-regulated control valves 1 1/2” 900# material SA182 F316, nuclear class NC3 and leakage class VI.

These are critical valves since their function is to assure the air supply to pneumatic actuators of certain critical valves at the plant. In case of failure of normal supply, air can be taken from an emergency tank at 1860 psig and provided to the installation in the outlet set pressure range of 72-115 psig.

Ringo Shipping Valves for Iranian Refinery

Samson Ringo has already successfully performed the Factory Acceptance Test of a new lot of valves related to one order currently under manufacturing for Kangan Petro Refining Refinery to be installed in the Kangan C₂Recovery and Fraction Plant whose main purpose is to recover some products such as Ethane, Propane, Butane and C₅+ from the gas extracted from South Pars Phase 12 in Iran.

This shipment shall include rising stem ball valves Ringo 20” 600# series NCBV (110 valves of this type sizes 3” to 20” in class 300# and 600#). Anyway, scope of the order included some other ball valves. Complete scope is shown below:

· Valve types: More than 200 ball valves including side entry ball valves series SEBV and Rising stem type series NCBV ( Both cases soft seated and metal seated)

· Valve sizes: From 1 1/2” 150# to 52″ 600#

· Materials: Carbon steel A350 LF2, A352 LCB, A216 WCB; Stainless Steel A351 CF8M and Alloy Steel A182 F11

· Temperature operation: There are low temperature valves with temperature operation down to -95ºC and high temperature valves with operation up to 430ºC

· Operation: including pneumatic and electric operated valves (BDV, SDV, ESDV and MOV)

Rotork Actuators Integral Part of Spanish Solar Plants

Rotork IQ intelligent electric valve actuators with Rotork Pakscan two-wire digital control provide key valve automation functions for two solar power plants in Spain. These plants utilize parabolic trough concentrating technology combined with a molten salt thermal storage system to maximize their power generating capacity.

Rotork Iberia has worked closely with the plants’ owner to integrate an economical and efficient valve control system, leading to the installation of several hundred IQ actuators on each site. The decision to use Rotork’s Pakscan control system was assisted by its extremely long range bus communication capabilities and cost savings. Each Pakscan Master Station can operate a bus loop of up to 20 kilometers in length with no deterioration in communication performance or the need for repeaters, making it ideal for the spacious environment of a solar power plant.

In addition to the actuators installed when the sites were first built, new actuators have subsequently been retrofitted to manually operated valves to increase the scope of automation across the sites. The retrofit projects are being carried out by Rotork Site Services, a dedicated department that supports all actuator operations with a range of activities including retrofitting, maintenance, repair, extended scope projects and asset management.

More than 300 actuators are also being fitted to the outlet valves of the solar field loops on the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) pipes that carry the heat transfer oil between the solar concentrating parabolic mirrors, the steam plant and the power generation circuits. The majority of the actuators are IQ3 multi-turn units with Rotork Gears IB gearboxes, providing on/off control.

These actuators will enable individual HTF circuits to be automatically isolated when essential maintenance is required. Automation will enable the open or closed position of each valve to be remotely indicated and monitored via the Pakscan control system, improving the safety and environmental integrity of operations.

Dataloggers within the IQ3 actuators facilitate valve diagnostics by recording historical operating data and valve torque trends. Using Rotork’s Insight 2 software this data can be analyzed on a PC to predict any potential operating issues, enabling maintenance to be planned in advance without interruption to normal plant operations.

Metso Receives Two Large Orders from Chinese Pulp and Paper Companies

Metso has received two valve orders totaling 8,200 valves from major pulp and paper customers in China. The orders are booked in Metso's first quarter 2018 orders received.

Metso will supply Neles® ball valves, globe valves, and segment valves, as well as Neldisc® butterfly valves for on-off duty and control applications. The control valves are equipped with Neles® ND9000 series valve controllers, which have the capability for advanced performance follow-up and enable the planning of predictive maintenance activities.

The total value of the orders and the company names are not being disclosed.

NF Energy Saving Signed Contracts for Valves with Chinese Pulp and Renewable Energy Projects

NF Energy Saving Corporation (NFEC) ("NF Energy" or the "Company"), a leading energy saving service solutions provider for China's power, petrochemical, coal, metallurgy, construction and municipal infrastructure development industries, recently signed two sales contracts, having an aggregate value of $2,500,000, to supply valves. According to the contracts, the Company expects to deliver these valves in the second and third quarters of this year.

These companies are the chemical pulp project of One Paper Co. Ltd in Shandong Province and the renewable energy utilization center project of One Comprehensive Development Co. Ltd in Shanghai.

Chromatic Industries Awarded Sal of Valves to Alaskan Pipeline

Chromatic Industries, LLC (“Chromatic”), a state-of-the-art valve manufacturer, has been awarded a contract to supply valves to Alyeska pipeline service company. Supplying mechanical seated solutions, Chromatic will support Alyeska in the Last Frontier State.

Chromatic Industries, LLC is a global valve manufacturer of specialty engineered valves for the energy, power, and petrochemicals sectors and is a subsidiary of Sequitur Energy Resources, LLC.

Mogas Receives Four Orders for Severe Service Valves from Chinese Refinery

Mogas Industries, Inc. (MOGAS) recently received four orders to manufacture severe service isolation valves with actuation from Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company (ZRCC).

Located in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, the Zhenhai refinery is the most profitable company under Sinopec, the world's biggest refiner. Sinopec plans are to build itself into a world-class, high-tech and integrated refining and chemical base, as it benefited from the refining business amid the biggest crude price slump in a generation.

Mogas will provide more than 300 severe service valves in various proprietary configurations with actuation comprising manual / electric, pneumatic and pneumatic / electric operators. All valves will be installed in ZRCC’s ebullating bed hydrocracking unit.

Mogas is the only manufacturer with valves installed in every ebullated bed unit worldwide—totaling well over 8,800 valves. Their experience in the industry remains unmatched.

ATI and Volk Flow Controls Supplying Actuators and Valves for Kings Mountain Energy Center

The Kings Mountain Energy Centre is a 475MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant that is currently being built in Kings Mountain, Cleveland County, North Carolina. The new facility is being developed by NTE Energy and by the time it is completed it is expected to be one of the cleanest and most efficient power generation plants in all of South Carolina.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the project took place in July 2015, with construction beginning in March 2016 and commissioning occurring by the fourth quarter of 2018. Once up and running the energy center will supply electricity to roughly 4000,000 homes.

The M501GAC gas turbine employs Mitsubishi’s GAC turbine technology in a combined-cycle configuration and the turbine is an air-cooled version of Mitsubishi’s G Series model. Natural gas for the power plant will be supplied via a direct interconnection to the Transcontinental Natural Gas Pipeline. The power generated from the Kings Mountain power plant will be supplied to a 230kV power transmission system operated by Duke Energy Carolinas.

The energy centre will also feature a water supply and treatment, wastewater, and fire protection system.

A new HRSG, including three industrial pump stations, will be installed to provide water for the plant’s processes. Designed to handle extreme water pumping conditions, the pump station will be installed with Goulds 7.5hp vertically configured, damage-proof pumps in a duplex configuration to meet the high pumping rate.

The power plant will be installed with gate valves and spring-return linear actuators, as well as fail-open pneumatic actuators that comprise limit switches and solenoids. ATI, an integrated manufacturer of valve automation solutions, provided linear valve actuators, while Volk Flow Controls provided gate valves for the power plant.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Kings Mountain Energy centre was awarded to Gemma Power Systems. Romtec Utilities provided lift station design and engineering services for the project.

Curtiss-Wright Wins Contract for Valves in Navy Submarine

Curtiss-Wright Corporation has been awarded a contract valued in excess of $28 million to provide valves for the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class submarines. The award was received from Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. (BPMI) to support ship construction and spare parts procurement. The contract includes FY18 orders for two ship sets of submarine propulsion plant valves and spares.

Curtiss-Wright is performing the work at its facility in East Farmingdale, N.Y., a business unit of Curtiss-Wright’s Industrial division within the Commercial/Industrial segment. Engineering and manufacturing has commenced and will continue through 2022.

Ampo Poyam Valves Used in Cheniere Corpus Christi Liquifaction Train

Currently tens of thousands of Ampo Poyam valves are installed in the most important liquefaction facilities in the US and Corpus Christi is not an exception. Cheniere and Bechtel chose Ampo Poyam Valves for the design and manufacture of more than 1750 valves for Corpus Christi Liquefaction Train 3, which consists of the addition of one liquefaction train to the already existing 2 trains and one additional tank as well as a second berth. The Train 3 would increase the expected aggregate nominal LNG production capacity at the Liquefaction Project to approximately 13.5 mtpa.

The Train 3 is expected to be commissioned in 2020 and Ampo Poyam Valves is currently supplying the following valves, which some of them are already being delivered: manual cryogenic ball valves, cryogenic globe and check valves, as well as actuated cryogenic and non-cryogenic ball valves and metal seated valves. The valves’ sizes range up to 42” and the pressure range is varying from 150 to 900 lbs. It is important to mention that besides the outstanding isolation capability of its big sized cryogenic top entry ball valves, these valves reduce the pressure drop in the line and consequently, smaller equipment may be used.

Since 2012, Ampo Poyam Valves has supplied more than 4,000 highly engineered valves for the first two trains of Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG project, and a series of valves for trains 1 to 5 of the Sabine Pass LNG liquefaction project, whose customers were also Cheniere and Bechtel. Some of them, 36” and 42” HIPPS valves, achieved a perfect isolation in less than 2 seconds. This order also included cryogenic, non-cryogenic and metal seated ball valves.

Moreover Ampo Poyam Valves will also provide, as usual, on-site after sales services, supporting the construction, commissioning and start-up of the Train 3, with a team of engineers from Ampo Service..

New Products

Pulsafeeder Adds New Actuator

Pulsafeeder, a global leader in fluid handling technology since 1942, announced the new XAE Actuator, which brings a higher level of precision and remote control to the PulsaPro family of diaphragm pumps. PulsaPro metering pumps are used to dose specific volume of chemicals for numerous applications in refineries, chemical & petrochemical plants, and throughout the upstream oil & gas industry.

The API compliant XAE Actuator is an electromechanical servo controller that provides remote control of PulsaPro hydraulic diaphragm pumps, to alter flow rates as required by the process. Alarm relays alert users to unintended changes in flow rates, including stop conditions. The fault-tolerant and self-recovering XAE is designed for reliability and minimal maintenance, with metal gearing and an explosion-proof enclosure. Simple calibration capabilities and an intuitive user interface facilitate ease-of-use. The XAE is purpose-built for PulsaPro pumps, and it is designed to meet the needs of international industrial markets.

“In the past, we have provided third-party valve actuators, but after soliciting customer and distributor feedback, we’ve designed and built a true metering pump actuator that provides a better fit, and tighter controls for the PulsaPro pump series,” said Erik Van Bork, Manager of Controls Engineering for Pulsafeeder. “The XAE is manufactured in the same plant as the PulsaPro pumps. This shortens delivery times, and we provide a common warranty for both products that further simplifies things for our customers.”

The XAE Actuator is built on a customizable platform. The XAE’s digital microprocessor-based controls are built for seamless control panel integration, and numerous expansion port capabilities provide hooks to facilitate future enhancement as customer, and industry needs change.

Valcor Engineering Launches New Valves and Regulators

The SV102 is a manual regulator that provides great accuracy and repeatability in a compact, durable package. It is suitable for a variety of industrial applications, both new and retrofit. Typical applications include pressure control of inks and tones in printing applications, inert gas pressurization of reaction vessels, controlling flow of process gasses in packaging applications, and varied other uses in food processing, pharmaceutical and manufacturing fields.

The SV22 and SV28 have a life-span of over a billion cycles offered in a solid, compact design with extremely high flow rates. These valves are suitable for many applications across numerous industries requiring minimal downtime for maintenance.

The SV22 comes in 2-way and 3-way configurations and can be used in many applications, including inert gas controls in packaging applications, BP cuff inflation control, CPAP devices, seal inflation control, air pilot control, weld shielding gas control, filling and dispensing, reagent control, rinsing/CIP applications, and process fluid control.

The SV28 utilizes the latest technology to provide gas flow control. The operator can vary the output flow based on the current input to the solenoid. The consistent gain and low hysteresis of this valve provides a high degree of controllability. The valve may be controlled using DC current, open or closed-loop control, and even pulse width modulation to cover a wide range of applications

“This product introduction will allow Valcor to engineer a custom solution into a compact space at a cost-effective price,” stated Dan McMillan, Director of Sales and Marketing, Industrial Products. “Our customers will love the footprint these valves and regulators offer in a space constrained manufacturing environment.”

CORTEC Introduces New CRV26 Pressure Relief Valve

CORTEC, a leading manufacturer of high quality API chokes, valves and manifolds, has introduced its new CRV26 Pressure Relief Valve (PRV). The CRV26 PRV is a product of the CORTEC Fluid Control division of CORTEC, which provides a complete line of high-end valves designed and manufactured according to specific project specifications. CRV26 PRV is engineered to protect drilling systems against the dangers of over pressurization and is the first of its kind to be rated to 10,000 PSI systems.

The CRV26 PRV is suitable for frac system relief, mud pump relief and managed pressure drilling (MPD) and is compatible with API 6A and NACE MR0175 requirements.

Hayward Flow Control Announces New PVDF Ball Check Valves

Hayward Flow Control announces the addition to its industry leading TC Series True Union Ball Check Valve of natural PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) to its material offering. By adding PVDF to the line, the TC Series extends the range of applications and services where Hayward’s True Union Ball Check Valves can be installed. Higher temperature services, extreme corrosive media, and high purity systems are now covered.

The TC Series features a true union design with threaded or IPS Sch40/80 socket fusion end connections. The ball is made from solid PTFE. Sizes include 1/4″ through 1″. FPM seals are standard. All sizes carry a pressure rating of 150psi / 10 bar Non-Shock at 70°F / 23°C. Maximum service temperature is 240°F / 115°C.

Additional Key Features & Benefits Include:

· Ideal for Vertical Installation

· Square Cut Seat for Positive Sealing

· Seats with Minimum Back Pressure

· FPM O-Ring Seals Standard, EPDM upon Request

· Easy to Maintain Design

· Natural PVDF per ASTM D3222 Type 1

· Backed by Hayward’s Exclusive 2 Year Warranty

· Made in the U.S.A.

Typical applications or installations include, but are not limited to, water and wastewater treatment, clean water technology, chemical feed systems, chemical processing, mining and mineral processing, metal plating / surface finishing, marine, pulp and paper, and other demanding processes.

McIlvaine Company

Northfield, IL 60093-2743

Tel: 847-784-0012; Fax: 847-784-0061

E-mail: editor@mcilvainecompany.com

Web site: www.mcilvainecompany.com