Engineering and technique? Not only that, but also culture and judgment skills

Management is succeeding in the not easy feat of innovating not only from a technological point of view but also from a cultural point of view. The goal is to design a tomorrow that can represent a new way of understanding doing industry in Italy and around the world. VED is a multifaceted company, young in spirit but with a long history behind it that gives it the maturity and awareness necessary to face the challenges of the future.

The questions, into the article, to which Raffaele Maria Liberto, entrepreneur and Managing Director of the company, answers to better understand what VED is today, how it was born and above all how it has evolved over the years, but also what it represents within of the Italian and international industrial scene:

All those who work in the industrial sector know the “plant shutdown”, whether planned or not, and above all the relative costs. Could you give us some examples of your interventions with systems running?

I ask you to reflect on two topics that are talked about a lot: energy transition and environmental sustainability. How does VED deal with these issues? What actions is it taking?

Innovation is a distinctive feature of VED. This requires constant costs and investments. How do you manage to reconcile the need for results with the need to invest in projects that can give you good profitability?

I ask you one last question. Third or fourth generation for the green label house, VED?

For years defined as “divisions”, today are slowly migrating towards a meaning that makes the idea better, namely that of “business unit”. I would like to briefly introduce you:

CMA – Composite Material Applications, is the BU (Business Unit) of composites, that is, of all those products and services that gravitate around a sector that makes innovation its raison d’etre, with applications ranging from Oil & Gas from aeronautics to the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors;
GFE – Fugitive Emissions Management, focuses its activity on the identification and monitoring of fugitive emissions from industrial plants. Activities in line with environmental policies aimed at improving sustainable practices and aimed at safeguarding the fragile ecosystem in which we live;
GPE – Gaskets Production Engineering, represents the history and a cornerstone of VED, the production of industrial gaskets. This type of product is part of the protection of the environment mentioned above, in fact the correct containment of fluids also through innovative and reliable seals, allows you to protect the surrounding environment from any contamination, improving the safety of the systems.
TMS – Technical Maintenance Services, the BU for specialized on-site maintenance in refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants, steel mills, ships in navigation and much more. An activity that is carried out above all in operations in which it is not possible to transport the equipment on which to intervene to the workshop and it is therefore the operating machine that is positioned on-site, directly in the plant or even in an engine room of a ship underway.

VED’s CMA business unit has deployed an innovative service, the SRS (Steel Recovery System). These are structural reinforcements: the concept is already known in the construction sector, perhaps less so in the industrial one. Steel pipes, as well as tank walls, due to corrosive agents, can undergo under-thicknesses, or reductions of the walls up to cracks and breaks in the most serious cases. Using two-component epoxy resins and bi-directional glass / carbon reinforced fibers, we are able to safely rehabilitate equipment and entire lines, without stopping industrial plants. This allows not only to respect the scheduled maintenance deadlines, but also to request our assistance for a very wide range of applications, ranging from pipes and steel structures, to valves, tanks, mobile tanks, up to flanged joints, in short, truly a great variety of applications. All in line with international standards such as ISO 24817 and ASME PCC-2.

The second example concerns the TMS team, the BU specialized in industrial mechanical maintenance services. As I said earlier, I believe in response to your previous question that TMS operates within refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants, steel mills, thermoelectric plants, food industries, ships and paper mills. I have only mentioned the main applications that we are able to tackle, with activities such as:

• the elimination of leaks through the mechanical design and installation of containment boxes,
• the execution of holes under pressure without interrupting the production process,
• the overhaul and calibration of safety and regulation valves.

These types of interventions allow the plants to continue to operate, they do not always constitute definitive repairs but restore operating conditions, allowing the maintenance of a plant in safe conditions until the next scheduled stops.

In all the VED BUs we pay particular attention to sustainability and the environment. All the services and products we offer to the market, as well as guaranteeing the safety standards required in the plants and equipment in which we operate, ensure production efficiency and safeguard the ecosystem. The leak sealing protects the environment, as well as an excellent mechanical facing on the surface of a flange, protects it. That’s not all, even the tightening of flanged joints, through the use of torque wrenches (hydraulic / pneumatic with controlled torque), always respecting the required legislation, protect the environment. A gasket with advanced technological features or a structural reinforcement with the use of the best composite materials, also protect the environment from significant risks.

Innovating means investing even daring if necessary but it does not mean being inexperienced, innovation is not an abstract concept, it is study, it is planning, it is living in the present with a clear vision of the future.

– R.M.L.

I assert this because in VED we are firmly convinced that engineering and technique without culture and judgment skills are not enough: only in this way will it be possible to be fully and concretely innovative. Our customers include companies in the chemical, pharmaceutical, water treatment and waste sectors. In 2019 we received a particular request from one of our customers, who asked us for the possibility of making a Venturi Scrubber entirely in fiberglass, an equipment that allows us to break down dust and acid micropollutants usually present in gaseous streams. Those in steel, even if with protective coatings, are usually subject to intense corrosive phenomena that reduce their reliability and long-term operation.

Here two factors come into play: on the one hand the technique and on the other the ability to understand how much the success of that project was important not only for the company but also for the innovation made in the field of waste treatment. Thus in 2020 the first Venturi Scrubber in fiberglass manufactured by VED was born for a fume abatement line of a waste treatment plant, light, resistant to corrosive agents and also to medium-high temperatures. At that moment the CMA team dared, the project was valid, as well as its implementation and we received positive feedback from the customer himself, thus achieving the goal.

The complete article examines other topics on mechanical maintenance innovation, seal engineering and much more.