UltraCheck^® RV Debuts for Relief Valve Diagnostics; Entire Family Migrates to Notebook

Framatome Technologies has introduced UltraCheck^® RV for relief valves, the latest addition to its family of industry leading valve diagnostic equipment. In addition, new hardware for the entire UltraCheck family makes all of the FTI valve diagnostic products easier to use.

All of FTI’s UltraCheck products – “C” for Check Valves; “A” for air operated valves; and the new “RV” for relief valves will now be offered on a notebook computer platform, increasing compatibility and ease of use between the UltraCheck platforms.

The move to the smaller notebook computer is important, said Joe Ramsey, FTI’s Sr. Project Manager in Valve Services.

“This move to the notebook computer frees us from dependence on computer manufacturers,” said Ramsey. “Before this change each UltraCheck system was built individually. But with the new systems a notebook computer plugs into a Hardware Interface Module (HIM) (similar to a docking station) – the HIM contains the electronic interface card particular to the UltraCheck product and a panel to connect the data collection sensory devices to the valve. We now essentially sell a docking station and software that provides more flexibility.”

The software for all UltraCheck programs now shares a common Windows^® structure ensuring consistency between each version. “If you know UltraCheck C, for instance, you can quickly learn UltraCheck RV, since 95 percent of the program is the same,” he said.

UltraCheck RV for relief valves has been under development for some time. “We worked with DeLuca Test Equipment, a leader in the relief valve test stand business, to incorporate the functional requirements for a relief valve diagnostic platform,” said Ramsey.

“This product has a larger market appeal than just the utility industry. All process industries can use UltraCheck RV to affordably collect and analyze data using computer technology. In the past many of these industries have had to roughly estimate the health of their relief valves with the use of a pressure gauge and stopwatch, not a very accurate method.”

UltraCheck RV can also test vacuum relief valves like those used on storage tanks. “There are applications for all of the UltraCheck products outside of the utility business, but particularly for the new relief valve product,” Ramsey added.

UltraCheck RV provides acoustic, pressure, flow sensing and displacement measurement capabilities for air, liquid and steam relief valves. In addition, ASME code requirements are built into the software to automatically interpret data results to determine if code requirements have been met.

UltraCheck C, the first in the FTI valve testing family, was introduced in 1989 and now has approximately 50 percent of the U.S. nuclear power market. UltraCheck A was introduced in 1996, and then enhanced in 1999. The UltraCheck family utilizes state of the art technologies to analyze operability problems with check valves, air operated valves or relief valves.