Kaushal Goradia, Director – Operations at Tecnik Group.

What are the most significant innovations in industrial valve design over the past five years?

We can distill the changes over past five years in two broad criteria:

a. How a valve is made

The most significant change has been in manufacturers starting to widely adopt new materials, advanced alloys, ceramics, and specialised coatings to offer improved valve performance. These materials not only offer enhanced durability, corrosion resistance, and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures, thereby extending valve lifespan and reducing maintenance requirements.

They offer the ability to manufacture valve parts in ways that were not possible earlier – combining a high degree of customisation even at reduced lead times.

3D printing technology has revolutionised valve manufacturing by allowing the creation of complex geometries and customised designs that were previously unattainable.

This approach accelerates prototyping, reduces production costs, and enables on-demand manufacturing, offering greater flexibility in meeting specific application requirements.

b. How the valve operates over its lifespan

The integration of automation and intelligent control systems has transformed valve operations. Valve automation is now not limited to precisely managing autonomously to changing conditions without human intervention.

However, offering an advanced predictive analysis is the biggest gain to help greatly reduce failure and downtime.

How are material advancements (e.g., composite materials, coatings) and technologies like additive manufacturing influencing valve durability and performance?

Advances in 3D printing are helping the valve industry at several levels, apart from the much spoken ability to 3D print complex trim pathways and critical overlays, including ceramic coatings, etc. A much wider but lesser acknowledged advantage is the ability to 3D print the valve patterns – toolings for valve castings. This helps with faster turnarounds; it thus addresses a very important bottleneck with valve manufacturing and that is the time taken for custom design to go from 3D models to actual finished product.

A new but still evolving feature the new technologies (additive manufacture and ceramic coatings) offers now is to refurbish and make new and existing worn out parts – thus significantly extending the valve’s lifespan.

What are the key benefits and challenges of integrating AI and machine learning into valve operations?

The biggest advantage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will offer is to accurately predict potential failures – predictive maintenance will become a norm – will offer increased overall plant performance efficiency.

What are the most common challenges companies face when upgrading to automated valve system

The biggest challenge faced by plants while upgrading to automation is to choose the optimum level of sophistication. Often, there is a mismatch, either by opting to go for the most ‘trending’ or the latest of the technologies, or conversely, selecting the cheapest available option. Either way is a potential trap. Another challenge is incoherence among the various devices and systems – this would usually happen when automation is adopted in a phased manner or on piecemeal basis. It is therefore ideal to employ an EPC to work around these pitfalls.

(The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented)

Kaushal Goradia, Director – Operations at Tecnik Group, is leading the company's operations, whose strategic vision and expertise have been pivotal in driving growth and innovation. His commitment to excellence ensures that Tecnik Valves consistently adapts to the evolving needs of its clients. This continued progress underscores the company's unwavering focus on quality, reliability, and performance, reinforcing its position as a trusted partner in the Indian process industry.

Tecnik Valves Pvt Ltd, founded in 1996, has established itself as a leading Indian manufacturer of control valves and accessories for the process and engineering industries. Operating from the state of art facility in MIDC Boisar, near Mumbai, the company excels in designing and producing a diverse range of products, including pneumatic globe control valves, diaphragm valves, lined globe control valves, and ON-OFF valves. Serving industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, oil & gas, petrochemicals, refineries, cement, sugar, and power, Tecnik Valves is recognised for its precision-engineered solutions.

Further strengthening its capabilities, Tecnik Valves is expanding with a new advanced manufacturing facilityof 100 thousand sq.ft at Boisar. This facility will enhance production capacity, integrate cutting edge technology, and streamline operations to meet the growing demands of its clients more efficiently.