Petal Valve Marine Breakaway Coupling
The Petal Valve Marine Breakaway Coupling (also abbreviated as MBC) cuts down oil spills during offshore hose transfer caused by incidents of internal pressure surge or tanker breakout. The mechanism was developed specifically to assist in the safe transfer of heavy fuel oil, crude oil and similar products.
MBC provides a safe parting point during marine hose transfer and it gets activated in the event of an excessive overload during the loading of a tanker, at discharge or an excessive incidence of pressure surge. Such pressure could come from an inadvertent or sudden closure of a MBC valve downstream. The subsequent separation instantly relieves the acute pressure tension and safely shuts the product flow.
How a Petal Valve Marine Breakaway Coupling Works
The Marine Breakaway Coupling has 8 petals. Once the coupling separates upon activation, the excessive tension buildup along the hose string gets relieved and the product flow is instantly stopped when the segmented Petal Valves shut off. The entire system is powered by the energy contained in the flowing product.
To avert any possible damage to the oil pumps, hoses, meters, gaskets and expansion joints, during episodes of high velocity liquid transfer, the closure of the valve can be carried out at a rate that is controlled upstream or in both directions if the flow system is bi-directional.
The system can alternatively provide for instantaneous shutdown whenever that is feasible.
Applications
In the case of an intense pressure surge or where the discharging or loading vessel breaks away from its mooring, the petal valve marine breakaway coupling will detach when its pre-set parting load limit is exceeded.
This instantaneous activation reduces the pressure and tension in the system before it ruptures.
The principal purpose of the Petal Valve marine breakaway coupling is to reduce the danger of costly capital equipment damage, marine pollution and vessel downtime.
Features and Benefits of petal valve marine breakaway couplings
When a breakout occurs, the Marine Breakaway Coupling device operates without requiring any outside help or intervention by the system or personnel.
Other notable benefits:
- Speed of valve closure can be changed without dismantling the unit
- Completely self contained in terms of power source
- Provides surge protection
- Simple petal mechanism
- Low weight
- Re-usable
- Fail safe.
Marine Breakaway Couplings have been designed to greatly reduce oil spillage risk in the marine environment. The Petal Valve MBC is a very critical component during crude oil and offshore oil transfer. The MBC operates inside the floating hose string to shut down liquid flow in the event of breakage. This vital system gets activated by undue overload in the course of tanker discharging or loading, or during an excessive surge in pressure.
Whenever a Petal Valve MBC is not fitted, the resultant oil spillage and transfer system trauma could cause great damage to valuable assets like loading arms and hoses, harm to personnel, longer downtime, expensive oil spillage clean-up and environmental pollution.
