Energy Efficient and Safe Valve Testing Unit Using Wireless Technologies

The valve testing unit is a high pressure test equipment to test the valve manufactured in industries. Valves are tested to ensure that they sustain high pressure in the range of 10000 to 15000 PSI for the required amount of time without any leakage. It has few drawbacks such as inefficient usage of power, fatal accidents due to the proximity of the users with the testing unit to note the valve pressure during operation. It is much dangerous for the industry personnel to note the valve pressure for every minute during operation. There are chances of bolts fitted in the valve thrown away due to the issues in the bolt fittings and the immense pressure inside the valve. Therefore in order to avoid fatal accidents and to improve the industrial safety an efficient valve testing unit is designed and developed using ZigBee wireless transmission technology. The proposed efficient pressure monitoring unit uses emerging technologies like ZigBee, RFID along with ARM 7 processor. The proposed system uses LabVIEW software to develop the monitoring unit in PC. ZigBee wireless transmission technology is used for remote monitoring of valve pressure for every minute. RFID module is used for uniquely identifying the valve and to track the test results. The proposed unit saves energy by sending a signal to turn off the air driven booster pump once the prescribed pressure level is reached. The proposed unit also indicates the oil level of the test unit which avoids the manual intervention to verify the oil level and also detects issues in the bolts fitted in the valve by using a distance sensor which is to avoid fatal accidents by stopping the valve testing unit.