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An oxygen safety valve

A safety valve is a valve mechanism for the automatic release of a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system when the pressure or temperature exceeds preset limits.

It is part of a bigger set of pressure safety valves (PSV) or pressure relief valves (PRV). The other parts of the set are relief valves, safety relief valves, pilot-operated relief valves, low pressure safety valves, and vacuum pressure safety valves.

Safety valves were first used on steam boilers during the industrial revolution. Early boilers without them were prone to accidental explosion.

Vacuum safety valves (or combined pressure/vacuum safety valves) are used to prevent a tank from collapsing while emptying it or when cold rinse water is used after hot CIP or SIP. The calculation method is not defined in any norm when sizing a vacuum safety valve, particularly in the hot CIP / cold water scenario, but some manufacturers ^[1] have developed simulations to do so.

Function and design[link]

A cross-section of a proportional-safety valve

The earliest and simplest safety valve on the steam digester in 1679 used a weight to hold the steam pressure (this design is still commonly used on pressure cookers); however, these were easily tampered with or accidentally released. On the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the safety valve tended to go off when the engine hit a bump in the track. A valve less sensitive to sudden accelerations used a spring to contain the steam pressure, but these (based on a Salter spring balance) could still be screwed down to increase the pressure beyond design limits. This dangerous practice was sometimes used to marginally increase the performance of a steam engine. In 1856 John Ramsbottom invented a tamper-proof spring safety valve that became universal on railways.

Safety valves also evolved to protect equipment such as pressure vessels (fired or not) and heat exchangers. The term safety valve should be limited to compressible fluid application (gas, vapor, or steam).

The two general types of protection encountered in industry are thermal protection and flow protection.

For liquid-packed vessels, thermal relief valves are generally characterized by the relatively small size of the valve necessary to provide protection from excess pressure caused by thermal expansion. In this case a small valve is adequate because most liquids are nearly incompressible, and so a relatively small amount of fluid discharged through the relief valve will produce a substantial reduction in pressure.

Flow protection is characterized by safety valves that are considerably larger than those mounted in thermal protection. They are generally sized for use in situations where significant quantities of gas or high volumes of liquid must be quickly discharged in order to protect the integrity of the vessel or pipeline. This protection can alternatively be achieved by installing a high integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS).

Technical terms[link]

A steam locomotive boiler safety valve belonging to 60163 Tornado

In the petroleum refining, petrochemical, chemical manufacturing, natural gas processing, power generation, food, drinks, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries, the term safety valve is associated with the terms pressure relief valve (PRV), pressure safety valve (PSV) and relief valve. The generic term is Pressure relief valve (PRV) or pressure safety valve (PSV) It should be noted that PRVs and PSVs are not the same thing, despite what many people think; the difference is that PSVs have a manual lever to open the valve in case of emergency.

• Relief valve (RV): automatic system that is actuated by static pressure in a liquid-filled vessel. It specifically opens proportionally with increasing pressure.
• Safety valve (SV): automatic system that relieves the static pressure on a gas. It usually opens completely, accompanied by a popping sound.
• Safety relief valve (SRV): automatic system that relieves by static pressure on both gas and liquid.
• Pilot-operated safety relief valve (POSRV): automatic system that relieves on remote command from a pilot to which the static pressure (from equipment to protect) is connected^{[clarification needed]}.
• Low pressure safety valve (LPSV): automatic system that relieves static pressure on a gas. Used when the difference between the vessel pressure and the ambient atmospheric pressure is small.
• Vacuum pressure safety valve (VPSV): automatic system that relieves static pressure on a gas. Used when the pressure difference between the vessel pressure and the ambient pressure is small, negative and near the atmospheric pressure.
• Low and vacuum pressure safety valve (LVPSV): automatic system that relieves static pressure on a gas. The pressure is small, negative or positive and near the atmospheric pressure.

RV, SV and SRV are spring-operated (even said spring-loaded). LPSV and VPSV are spring-operated or weight-loaded.

Legal and code requirements in industry[link]

In most countries, industries are legally required to protect pressure vessels and other equipment by using relief valves. Also, in most countries, equipment design codes such as those provided by the ASME, API and other organizations like ISO (ISO 4126) must be complied with and those codes include design standards for relief valves.^[2][3]

Today, industries such as food, drinks, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals industries ask for hygienic safety valves, fully drainable and Cleanable In Place. Most of these are stainless steel made; the hygienic norms are mainly 3A in the US and EHEDG in Europe.

Types[link]

This section may require copy-editing.

Steam locomotive No. 46229, Duchess of Hamilton lifts her boiler safety valve after hauling the Welsh Marches Pullman charter.

There is a wide range of safety valves having many different applications and performance criteria required to cover different areas. In addition, national standards are set by many kinds of safety valve.

• ASME I tap - a safety valve in accordance with the requirements of Section I of the application code ASME pressure vessel, which opens 3% and 4% of the pressure. Will rule on two rings serving and supported by a National Seal V defined.
• ASME VIII valve - safety valve in accordance with the requirements of Article VIII of the ASME code for pressure vessel applications, which is within 10% overpressure that opens and closes in 7%. Characterized by a National Board UV stamp.
• Low-lift safety valve - the current position of the disc around the drain valve.
• Full lift safety valve - the region of the exemption is not determined by the position of the disc.
• Full-flow relief valve - A valve which is expected in the hole and lift the valve a sufficient measure of the minimum area for each position or under the seat to make the control panel.

Safety Valve * classic - The spring housing is vented to the pressure side, i.e., functional characteristics are directly influenced by changes in pressure in the valve.

• Valve balanced - a balanced valve includes a means to minimize the effects of pressure on the operating characteristics of the valve.
• Guide pressure valve - The largest dump device is in conjunction with controlled, self-actuated auxiliary pressure relief.
• Power operated valve - A pressure relief valve in which the main system to relieve pressure combined with and controlled by a device requires an external power source.
• Is the standard safety valve - a valve opening to achieve the degree of buoyancy required for mass flow increases the pressure to reject over 10%. (The valve is characterized by a score of popular art, sometimes also called high-lift).
• Full-lift (solid line) valve - a valve that opens at the beginning of the elevator, quickly, with a 5% increase in pressure until complete removal is limited by design. The amount of lift to an early start (analog) can not exceed 20%.
• Valve and spring - a safety valve for the treatment of violent opening of the valve plate by a clamping force as a spring or weight.
• Proportional-relief valve - a safety valve which opens more or less stable in comparison with increasing pressure. sudden opening within a stroke by 10% will not happen without increasing pressure. After opening at a pressure greater than 10% meet these safety valves of the lift and landed on the mass flowmeter.
• Safety valve diaphragm - A direct-loaded safety valve with linear and rotary components and springs to protect against the effects of the liquid membrane.
• Bellows valve - A direct-loaded safety valve and slide (or part) of rotating elements and sources are protected from the effects of fluid through bellows. The bellows allows such an interpretation, it is as if the influences of pressure.
• Controlled valve - A valve that consists of a main valve and a control unit. It also includes direct acting safety valves with additional load, which, until the total pressure reached, an additional force increases the closing force.
• Safety valve - A valve that automatically, without using any form of energy than the liquid in the discharge quantity of liquid, so as to prevent a predetermined safe pressure is higher, and closed again to prevent the flow of more volatile after the normal working pressure were restored. Note that the valve can be characterized by a pop-action (quick opening) or open relationship (not necessarily linear) on increasing pressure over the whole pressure.
• Valve and spring - a safety valve when the charger through the liquid under pressure valve plate with mechanical pressure directly, unlike, for example, a weight, lever and weight or spring. * Assisted valve - A valve which can be lifted by a support mechanism for moving, also gradually the pressure that the pressure setting, and for failure to comply with a mechanism to support all requirements for safety valves in the standard.
• Safety valve spring in addition - as a safety valve until the inlet pressure safety valve to the pressure achieved additional power increases the power of foreclosure. Note that this extra power (extra weight), which is made from an external power source is available, reliable published when the inlet pressure reaches the safety valve pressure set. The amount of the extra load is placed so that if such a charge is released, the safety valve of certified capacity at a pressure not greater than 1. protected 1 times the maximum allowable pressure devices.
• Master valve - A valve whose operation is initiated and controlled by the fluid discharged from a pilot valve is a safety net direct costs, provided that standard.^{[4][dead link]}

United States[link]

• ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code, Section I
• ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code, Section VIII, Division 1
• API (American Petroleum Institute) Recommended Practice 520 and API Standard 526, API Standard 2000 (low pressure - Storage tank)

European Union[link]

European standard steam boiler safety valve

• ISO 4126 (harmonized with European Union directives) ^[5]
• EN 764-7 (former CEN standard, harmonized with European Union directives, replaced with EN ISO 4126-1)
• AD Merkblatt (German)
• PED 97/23/EC (Pressure Equipment Directive - European Union)

Japan[link]

• JIS: Japanese Industrial Standards

South Korea[link]

• KOSHA

Water heaters[link]

Temperature and Pressure safety valve on a water heater.

They are required on water heaters, where they prevent disaster in certain configurations in the event that a thermostat should fail. There are still occasional, spectacular failures of older water heaters that lack this equipment. Houses can be leveled by the force of the blast.^[6]

Pressure cookers[link]

Pressure cookers are pots for cooking with a pressure-proof lid. Cooking at pressure allows the temperature to rise above the normal boiling point of water (100 degrees Celsius at sea level ) which speeds up the cooking and makes the cooking more thorough.

Pressure cookers usually have two safety valves. One is a hole upon which a weight sits. The other is a sealed rubber grommet which is ejected in a controlled explosion if the first valve gets blocked.

The term safety valve is also used metaphorically.

See also[link]

• Ball valve
• Butterfly valve
• Control valves
• Flow limiter
• Globe valve
• Needle valve
• Safety shutoff valve

References[link]

External links[link]

• Schematical overview working principle Safety Relief Valve
• Pressure relief valve sizing calculator PSV sizing calculator for liquid blocked outlet case.
• PSV sizing calculator for blocked gas outlet case. PSV sizing calculator for blocked gas discharge.
• PSV sizing calculator - fire case for gas filled vessel
• PSV sizing calculator - fire case for liquid filled vessel
• Example of hygienic safety valves range, 3A and EHEDH.

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