One of the founding members of VMA’s Education & Training (E&T) Committee, Ed Holtgraver (QTRCO), remembers the excitement created by the first Valve Basics Seminar held in Houston a decade ago.

The most common reason coatings don’t do what they are tasked with doing is surface preparation. Studies of coating failures by NACE International have shown that up to 75% of all coating failures are related to this problem. The remaining failures come from improper application, mixing or cure times, or improperly selected coatings, poorly written specifications, or a bad batch of coating.

The old saying in the valve service industry is “price, quality and delivery—you can pick any two.” That saying is still true 175 years after the first steam valves quit working and needed repair. Today, the most important criterion is quality, followed closely by delivery and then trailed by that nagging interloper, price.

If there is one thing those involved in developing and running the Valve Basics program have come to understand, it’s that the term “basics” means different things to different people. VMA has taken that reality into consideration in designing a new format for the Valve Basics course.