Quality Bulletin - Asset Management - Pressure Relief Valve Tracking

April 15, 2020

Salco Technical Consulting Services
1385 101st St., Suite A
Lemont, IL 60439
PH: (630)685-4599


TRACKING OF PRESSURE RELIEF / SAFETY RELIEF VALVES:  

The Tank Car Committee has approved the implementation of the Component Tracking Task Force (TF) requirements for Pressure / Safety Relief Valve (PRV) tracking in Rail Inc. This will make the optional barcoding of new and reconditioned PRV’s and association of said valves to the car mandatory. This requires that all valve manufacturers, reconditioners, and applicators register with Rail Inc. and apply an approved bar code to every PRV built, reconditioned, or applied to a tank car. All instructions and requirements are on the Rail Inc. website: https://www.railinc.com/rportal/web/guest/home

IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE:

  • Optional Implementation Date: July 1st 2020 – This would be the recommended date to at leaststart applying the bar codes and adjusting to the new system. Mistakes will not impact you or yourbusiness and will provide a learning period for full implementation.
  • Mandatory Implementation Date: January 1st 2021 – At this date, it will be a requirement that allvalves applied to cars (new or reconditioned) have an appropriate bar code applied to the valve,and the valve MUST be associated with the car in Rail Inc. before it is released into interchange. Note: The car cannot be accepted into interchange without the association.

 

FUTURE OF ASSET MANAGEMENT:  

In addition to this activity, the TF requested guidance on the remainder of service equipment category – valves. The Tank Car Committee’s guidance was to target and complete the remainder of the valves next with no preference on order. This means eventually all valves applied to tank cars will require this same level of barcoding and tracking in the Rail Inc. system in the future. The Tank Car Committee and the TF both feel the tracking of these critical tank car components is necessary to properly assess the health and safety of the tank car fleet. It is an initiative trend that will continue in the future.

If you have any questions on this change in requirements, or how to implement the new requirements, please feel free to contact your Salco Products Technical Services representative. We have the knowledge to assist you moving forward. A full list of our team members and their contact information can be found here.