Victaulic is known for its forward-thinking approach when designing innovative products that enable customers to realize real savings in downtime and costs. With the introduction of their unprecedented Knife Gate Valve design, Victaulic has once again put the customer’s need for faster, more efficient maintenance practices at the center of development.  

Piping system maintenance is an essential and unavoidable practice in mining operations around the world and it commands a significant amount of resources both in terms of pure cost and the time of maintenance crews on the ground. The South African mining market, with its unforgiving climate and remotely-located mine sites, understands the impact of increased elemental wear-and-tear on piping infrastructure, and the higher maintenance costs and overall investment required to keep remote plants operational and lucrative. Improving maintenance efficiency and reducing the costs associated with piping system maintenance has a direct impact on productivity and ultimately the bottom line.  

The Victaulic Knife Gate Valve is the first of its kind. Unlike all other valves on the market today, the Victaulic Knife Gate Valve can be maintained in-line without having to disconnect the valve from the line and drag it to the workshop for repair or rebuild. The design of the Victaulic Valve makes in-line maintenance possible by consolidating all wear components on the valve into a single cartridge kit that can be easily removed and replaced in minutes.  

TRAINING ON THE ROAD 

To stay ahead of the mining industry landscape, Victaulic places a lot of emphasis on learning and training because of the continuous product innovation. One such initiative is the mobile training program by Victaulic South Africa.  The team has a mobile training trailer that supports the program. The trailer is completely self-contained & versatile, set up with a pump, water tank and generator. The valves can be rolled out of the trailer and taken inside of a building, hooked up to a water supply or used dry to show how everything is installed and how it works. The trailer also has a series of different manufacturer’s valves installed for a comparative study.

Marcel Ley, Regional Sales Manager for Victaulic South Africa says, “We noticed that there is a continuous need of training in the market. We believe, as manufacturer, we can play a big role in this. Ensuring that people are equipped with the knowledge about how our system works is key to us. We already hosted quite a lot of trainings and the feedback from the trainees has been very positive.