API 607: Fire Test for Quarter-turn Valves

API 607 standard specifies fire type-testing requirements and a fire type-test method for confirming the pressure-containing capability of quarter-turn valves and other valves with nonmetallic seating under pressure during and after the fire test.

API 607 does not cover the testing requirements for valve actuators other than manually operated gear boxes or similar mechanisms when these form part of the normal valve assembly. Other types of valve actuators (e.g. electrical, pneumatic, or hydraulic) may need special protection to operate in the environment considered in this valve test, and the fire testing of such actuators is outside the scope of API 607 standard.

NOTE- For the purposes of this standard, the terms “fire type-test” and “fire test” are synonymous.

4 Test Conditions

4.1 Direction and Conditions for Valves to Be Tested

4.1.1 Symmetric seated valves intended by the manufacturer for bidirectional installation shall be tested in one direction only.

4.1.2 Asymmetric seated valves intended by the manufacturer for bidirectional installation shall be tested by carrying out the burn test procedure twice, once in each direction of the potential installation. The same valve may be refurbished and re tested, or another, identical, valve may be tested in the other direction.

4.1.3 Valves intended solely for unidirectional installation shall be clearly and permanently marked as such and shall be tested in the stated direction of installation.

4.1.4 If the valve being tested is fitted with a gearbox or other such manual device, then only that particular assembly shall qualify. If a valve can be supplied with or without a gearbox, testing with a gearbox fitted shall qualify valves without a gearbox but not the converse. Grease may be removed from a gearbox prior to testing for
safety purposes.

4.1.5 Valves (and gearboxes) shall not be protected with insulation material of any form during testing, except where such protection is part of the design of the component(s).

4.1.6 Prior to initiating the test, inspection requirements and testing by the valve manufacturer shall have been completed on the valve in accordance with API Standard 598 or applicable production testing.

4.2 Pressure Relief Provision

If the valve under test incorporates a pressure relief device as part of its standard design and if this device activates during the fire test, then the test shall be continued and any leakage to atmosphere from the device shall be measured and counted as external leakage. If the design is such that the device vents to the downstream side of the valve, then any leakage shall be counted as through-seat leakage (see 5.6.1 2 and 5.6.1 4). However, the test shall be stopped if the system pressure relief device described in 5.3.2.8 activates.