Albion Valves UK Ltd is taking a lead in industrial workplace safety and believes getting the basics right can help safeguard Britain’s workforce.
It is a well-known fact that due to the nature of the job in hand, industries such as building services, construction and manufacturing have one of the highest occurrences of workplace injuries and fatalities.
Although there has been improvement in health and safety at work, Albion believes that more can be done to help further reduce the number of incidents. To help promote safer working environments, Albion is urging engineers to be vigilant and not to compromise on the products they are sourcing for industrial and building services applications.
Les Littlewood, Sales Director commented:
“The majority of our distributors have customers operating in industrial and construction workplaces, where explosive atmospheres are commonplace.
We do the utmost to ensure that engineers and anyone working in potentially dangerous situations and using our products can do so with complete confidence.
We are aware that health and safety legislation and keeping up to date with new regulations can be a complicated process, which is why we have a dedicated quality team to ensure our products are all fit for purpose.”
Albion has added a range of fire-safe, anti-static, stainless steel ball valves to its product portfolio, these valves are TUV certified to API STD 607, and are designed to prevent the leakage of hazardous substances from the valve in the event of a fire.
Anti-static valves are suitable for installations within the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries, as well as a variety of other industrial processes dealing with oil, gas and other flammable media, where there is an increased risk of explosion if substances leak during a fire.
The anti-static device fitted on the valve, ensures that friction caused by the operation of the valve does not cause a build-up of static, which could potentially spark and have disastrous consequences.
Similarly, the ATEX certification mark is designed to minimize the risk of fire or explosion arising from the ignition of dangerous substances in the workplace. Albion’s range of stainless steel valves is ATEX certified for use in potentially explosive environments, and guaranteed not to spark if they come into contact with a combustible foreign body.
Another major safety threat posed to industrial work staff is in environments with high-pressure systems. In this instance pipework, valves and fittings are required to be compliant with the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED).
In applications where PED is applicable, it is mandatory to use safety valves with the appropriate approvals. If a valve without type test approval is installed there is no guarantee that required blow-off would be reached, which poses a big safety risk.
Working with gas is one of the most hazardous industrial occupations, to help get the basics right Albion’s range of brass ball valves for gas applications is verified with EN331 from British Standards Institution, ensuring products meet the optimum standards for quality, reliability and safety.
