Each year, our Big 50 List is the most widely read section in the magazine — and with good reason. It’s a great way to showcase the biggest names in distribution, along with brief recaps of what these companies have accomplished over the past year. But we found ourselves wondering… what about the companies that almost make it onto The Big 50 List? Or the ones who offer a product line that’s a bit more niche than the list typically highlights? Don’t these companies also deserve some recognition and the opportunity to showcase their accomplishments?

With this in mind, Industrial Distribution introduces The Big 50 Watch List. The next few pages will highlight eight special companies who have convinced us that they’re worth watching. Whether its new developments in value-added service, organic and external growth, or unique programs for employees, each one showcases the kind of strength of purpose that propels our industry forward.

Valin Corporation
Headquarters: Sunnyvale, CA
Core Products: Process control, automation
www.valin.com

Valin is a leading distributor of process control, fluid handling, measurement, heating, filtration, and automation products and systems for a wide range of high purity and industrial applications. Valin represents brand-leading manufactures, offering comprehensive solutions to the process markets including technology, life sciences, energy, and transportation.

Fugitive emissions in the USA have been estimated to be in excess of 300,000 tons per year, accounting for ~1/3 of the total organic emissions from chemical plants. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’S) are of significant environmental concerns because some VOC’s have the potential of photochemical ozone creation, ozone depletion, global warming, summer smog, toxicity, carcinogenicity etc.  Studies in various refines indicate ~ 60% of fugitive emissions are caused from leaking valves. In a typical refinery there are ~17,000 different types of valves.

Valin Corporation has created a self paced course for customers to better understand the needs of the petroleum refineries from a process and compliance view point. This training includes:

• Common refinery processes and what occurs in each step of the process

• Federal and state regulations for California, Texas, Washington and Utah

• Cost of Non Compliance

• Leak detection and repair

• Valin solutions

Sunnyvale, CA  February 23, 2012 - Valin Corporation, a distributor of process control and automation products and services, has announced that it is now ISO 9001 Certified. The certification is accredited by BSI, the world leader in standards and quality management services.

The certification of ISO 9001 recognizes that the policies, practices and procedures of our company ensure consistent quality in the products and services we provide our customers. With this certfication, our customers can be confident that Valin is dedicated to maintaining the highest efficiency, responsiveness and exceptional service.

January 1, 2012 - Technical Controls and Valin Corporation are pleased to announce the joining of our two companies. Our organization will now operate as Valin Corporation.

Our combined resources will allow us to enhance our services, while providing you with an even broader range of top-quality products and additional technical expertise. As always, you can continue to rely on our timely and professional customer support and our large inventory of products.

The management teams of Technical Controls and Valin Corporation have worked collaboratively in the past and are committed to integrating our operations quickly and efficiently. We hope you share our enthusiasm for this new and exciting association, and we thank you for your loyalty and support. We look forward to continuing to earn your valued business. Please call us if you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way.

January 1, 2012 - Fluid Conditioning and Valin Corporation are pleased to announce the joining of our two companies. Our organization will now operate as Valin Corporation.

Our combined resources will allow us to enhance our services, while providing you with an even broader range of top-quality products and additional technical expertise. As always, you can continue to rely on our timely and professional customer support and our large inventory of products.

The management teams of Fluid Conditioning and Valin Corporation have worked collaboratively in the past and are committed to integrating our operations quickly and efficiently. We hope you share our enthusiasm for this new and exciting association, and we thank you for your loyalty and support. We look forward to continuing to earn your valued business. Please call us if you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way.

The two most common methods of measuring the volume of petroleum liquids are tank gauging and liquid metering. The problems associated with tank gauging are (1) it requires that an operator make an accurate liquid  level determination by climbing to the top of the tank to be gauged, (2) that an operator make an accurate average liquid temperature determination, (3) that an operator make an accurate sediment and water content analysis and (4) that the tank be static, which means that no liquid can enter or leave the tank during gauging. Once the contents of the tank are removed, it is necessary to regauge the tank. Since crude oil/condensate is sold on the basis of temperature, API Gravity and the amount of Basic Sediment and Waste (BS&W), it is very important to make accurate measurements. The greatest effect on volume is temperature. Crude oil will expand and contract at the rate of 2% per 40 F temperature change. The accumulation of lease production and on $50.00 USD per barrel oil, would be the following:

Production Decline.
All wells decline in production over time. This decline can usually be controlled by how hard the well is produced. But the decline is hard to measure with periodic tank gauging or mechanical meters. Tank gauging is subject to human error and although seemingly simple, may be complicated by interconnections, overflow siphoning, and shrinkage. Mechanical flow meters like turbines and Flocos will wear with the sand and sediment that is produced, and will cause the meter to under-read. This under-reading is about the same as typical production decline rates and confuses the measurement. Valin C3s using Coriolis flow meters from Micro Motion are extremely accurate and have no moving parts. Even slow daily declines in production can be measured and trended. By knowing the real decline rate, reservoir engineers can decide whether to increase or decrease production, and thus extend the economic life of the well.

The choice of C3 technology and the hybrid variation is a logical decision based on the available choices for multiphase measurement.  The choice for the instrumentation on board the C3 is another decision based on available technology.  In order to arrive at these decisions it is necessary to examine the options that exist for this measurement.  We shall examine the system options first:

1. No separation—multiphase flowmeter.  Although this methodology seems the simplest and cleanest there are some serious drawbacks.  All of the multiphase flowmeters that have proven themselves in oilfield applications utilize radioactive attenuation to determine phase fractions.  Almost all of these systems have a Cesium, gamma ray source that is lethal if exposed to humans without shielding.  This makes it difficult to transport these meters and the liability involved for on-shore applications is beyond what most producers can tolerate.  The meters themselves are more than twice the cost of a C3 system and the technicians required to work on these multiphase meters are expensive and hard to find.

Process valves have evolved to handle an increasing array of media from liquids to gases, high temperatures to cryogenics, and high pressure to vacuum. Through it all, valve seat and stem seals have played a defining role in judging the effectiveness of ball and butterfly valve solutions. Valve seat sealing materials and technologies must reliably isolate process flow where and when it is needed, particularly in the event of an emergency. Valve stem seals have to prevent hazardous emissions from leaking into the atmosphere. In addition, the structural integrity of valve body castings needs to be maintained without fail. Human and environmental safety, process uptime and productivity, product quality and investment return depend on it.

Seat Geometry: Ball Valves
Flexible lip seats, first introduced in Metso’s Jamesbury® valves in the mid 1950s, are still the proven standard in tight, long-lasting seat sealing capability. Jamesbury ball valves’ unique floating ball design, together with flexible lip seat geometry, centers the ball and stores energy for low pressure sealing, and provides optimal, bi-directional seat recovery (see Figure 1). Jam seats used in competitive products cannot shift position to accommodate pressure from the ball and as a result, develop higher stress that diminishes seat recovery. Also, when pressure builds up in the body cavity due to trapped process fluid, both upstream and downstream flexible lip seats flex outward to release expanded fluids in the cavity without damaging the valve, permitting true bi-directional sealing. Again, because jam seats cannot move, they do not provide body cavity relief. This allows the pressure of trapped fluids to increase and compromise valve integrity and performance.

Additionally, Jamesbury ball valves with flexible lip seat design require considerably less torque to form a tight bi-directional seal. As a result, actuation packages can be lighter and more compact.