Case Study by Sierra: Working hear along California’s Central Coast in Monterey, I don’t often get to experience a White Christmas or snowball fights or even the excitement of schussing down the slopes (unless I travel 4 hours to Lake Tahoe, Northern California). So, it’s really tough for me to imagine the frigid, barren conditions of the coldest place on earth – Antarctica. But David Mucciarone knows the continent as well as any human can. A researcher and lab manager at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., David travels to Antarctica annually to measure the breakdown of inorganic carbon to learn how much carbon dioxide the ocean can absorb. His R&D work is critical to the ongoing study of global warming.

Even though Stanford is just 90 minutes north of Monterey, David had never crossed paths with Sierra Instruments until just a few short days before his trek to Antarctica in 2008. The mass flow controller in his CO2 monitoring equipment failed, and he needed a reliable replacement, STAT. So, at the recommendation of a colleague, he purchased a Sierra Smart-Trak® Model 100 for mass flow control. And, despite extreme cold (which has dipped down as far as -129 degrees Fahrenheit! Yikes!) and more than two months aboard an icebreaker ship that plows through thick ice, our flow meter never failed him.

To further read this Case Study by Sierra please click 'Breaking the Ice: Antarctica Researcher Meets Sierra’s ‘Smart’ Mass Flow Meter'

ASCo White Paper: Stainless steel pilot valves play small but critical roles in the control of offshore platforms and other demanding oil and gas production operations. Acting as pilots for process and larger emergency shutdown (ESD) valves, these valves are typically installed in a platform’s pneumatic logic control panels.

The valves are usually exposed to salt water and other challenging elements, so valve manufacturers all standardize on 316L stainless steel valve bodies. Panel builders, assemblers,  OEMs, contractors, and end users can choose from a wide variety of models, including air-operated, manually operated, solenoid-operated, and many more.

Specifiers and buyers must consider all the critical factors that bear on a given design’s reliability. The April 2010 platform loss and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have only sharpened the industry’s focus. In the case of pilot valves, this means that operators must have robust valves that perform efficiently each time, every time.

To further read this white paper by ASCo please click 'Eight critical factors in purchasing offshore pilot valves'