Zahroof Valves, Inc. (ZVI) has announced that the company’s Reed Valve Module and Valve Assembly have been granted U.S. Patent No. 9,989,161, marking a major milestone for the company.
The latest patent adds to the company’s portfolio of products that are changing the way oil and gas companies operate. Altogether, ZVI now has 43 patents granted and several pending on nine different technologies in thirty-one different countries.
Since the release of its modular reed valve technology encapsulated in their flagship StraightFlo™Valve, thirty-two related patents have been granted around the world in countries as diverse as Australia, Great Britain, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, and Turkey. Additional patents on the technology are pending in Canada, South America, and Southeast Asia.
The StraightFlo™ Valve is a reed check valve that is unique in that the valve assembly is made up of replaceable reed valve modules that are designed so that the gas flows essentially in a straight line through a valve, with very little deviation resulting in very low losses in the valve.
All the wear components are in the module. Therefore, servicing a valve consists of simply replacing a bad module within the valve with a new one. The technology eliminates the need to machine any parts during service. Replacement of a module within a valve is done by hand and does not require special tools.
The modules are interchangeable and there is only a limited number of modules required to service all reciprocating compressor applications, thereby reducing valve inventory at a site by as much as 80%.
The design of the reed valve modules makes it more tolerant to liquids and solid particles in the gas stream resulting in lifetimes as much as 5 to 10 times that of conventional valves in difficult application such as in gas production. Improvement in reliability and the mean time between shut down of the compressor due to valve issues minimizes production losses due to downtime and also greatly reduces emissions.
Image courtesy of Zahroof Valves