High Pressure Suppliers Use the Web on Pressure/Vacuum-Relief Vents

Oct. 1, 1999
Manufacturers of pressure- and vacuum-relief vents are making it easier for maintenance managers to track down information on their products anytime,

Manufacturers of pressure- and vacuum-relief vents are making it easier for maintenance managers to track down information on their products anytime, day or night. The manufacturers are doing so by including detailed specifications on their web sites.

In days not too far in the past, maintenance managers spent hours on the telephone or thumbing through well-worn pages of catalogs. Those time-consuming practices haven't been fully replaced, but the Internet certainly has had an impact. One advantage of the Internet is that it allows companies to post product information quickly and offers instant company contact through e-mail.

The vent manufacturers whose sites are reviewed this month provide products for use with tank trailers, tank containers, intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), and storage tanks. Many sites provide product application specifics, descriptions, photographs, specifications, and schematics.

www.claybailey.com Just one click away from the home page of Clay & Bailey, Kansas City, Missouri, is a list of products the company supplies for the tank truck industry, including DOT406 and DOT412 domes and vents, nonspecification manholes and vents, product manways, hot product manways, crude oil domes, and fuse plugs. Also listed are above-ground and underground storage tank products, such as emergency vents, overfill prevention valves, and pressure/vacuum-relief vents. It's simple. It's easy. It's designed for quick contact with either the manufacturer or its distributors.

The company offers a complete catalog of the company's products. It is available on CD-Rom and can be ordered from the web site.

Take a look at the equipment list to see if the desired item is listed. If so, go to the bottom of the page for an authorized distributor location, select a state and/or country, click on start search, and the information is available from the Petroleum Equipment Institute (www.pei.org)directory search. There, distributor contact information, definition of operations, and product lines are ready for copying. Or if you prefer, click on the Clay & Bailey contact button for direct contact to the manufacturer.

When you are finished with the search, another happy moment is spent by just clicking back to the Clay & Bailey pages because the search doesn't move you off the original site. Another convenience provided on the site is a list of shows and booth assignments where the company's products will be displayed.

The web site is under construction and more information is being added, but for now the site's simplicity makes up for anything that may be lacking.

www.fortvale.com The home page for Fort Vale, Houston, Texas, not only leads the way to vent information, it will link to another site that converts international currency into dollars. However, more visitors are likely to take an interest in the equipment the company offers than learning the exchange rate for the Euro.

Take an interest in vents, for instance. Specification charts, descriptions, photographs, applications, schematics, and disassembly illustrations depict the component offerings with an eye toward answering most questions that a prospective customer might ask. If there are questions, e-mail is available by clicking on the contact button at the left of the home page, and addresses and telephone/fax numbers are listed.

In-depth information is available for all the company's product line, including ISO tank container relief valves, supermaxi ancillaries, tank truck valves, IBC relief valves, gas tank equipment, uniact/twinact valves, and many others.

It's easy to reach the section that applies to US tank trailer equipment. A click on the application button and one more on US tank trailer and an index of equipment appears at the left of the page. Further clicks will pull up information about venting devices, discharge valves, domelid hatches, and ancillary equipment.

Applications pages under construction will provide information about European road tanker equipment, petroleum transfer equipment, and process products.

For more varied information outside the site, links are provided to Road Haulage Association, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, British Standards Institution, European Transport, US Department of Transportation, International Maritime Organization, Universal Currency Converter, Intermodal Association of North American, and Transport Canada.

The home page index buttons include news, contacts, products, applications, exhibitions, offices, distributors, group companies, downloads and links, and mill certificates (obtained by password).

www.girardequip.com Girard Equipment Inc of Rahway, New Jersey, has a wonderfully compact home page with large photographs of tank trailers and tank containers. The site navigation is also smooth, with home and products buttons always at the ready.

Girard manufactures pressure relief vents and magnetic vacuum breakers for DOT tank trailer specifications, including DOT407, DOT412, MC307, and MC312. The company also provides venting and valve equipment for ISO tank containers and IBCs.

On the home page, just click on one of the pictures for details about equipment the company has to offer. In addition, each equipment page has photographs and in-depth specifications, including a page for information about new products such as a vapor recovery adapter, magnetic vacuum breaker, and pressure-relief vent.

The site provides product performance specifications, schematics, photographs, and other information about the offerings. Additional buttons lead to accessories.

If more information is needed, there is a convenient e-mail link at the bottom of the page that quickly sends the query to a company engineer.

Back on the home page, the distributor location button finds a clickable map of the United States. Additional information is available for distributor locations in Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Another convenient arrangement keeps the home, what's new, and products buttons at the bottom of the map pages.

In the middle of the home page is the links button for more than 60 other sites, including subjects of tank containers, carriers, manufacturers, publications, distributors, depots, government, and associations.

At the bottom of the home page are e-mail and company information buttons.

www.gitsmfg.com A sleek home page is featured by Gits Manufacturing Co of Creston, Iowa. Four buttons show the way to the company profile, product catalog, contact information, and HFV (high flow vents) vents designed for IBCs.

Clicking on the HFV button leads to product description and design drawings. Offerings include several new products: a pressure-relief four-in-one fusible cap for viscous fluids and a five-in-one fusible cap for pressure/vacuum applications.

The online product catalog is easily accessed and contains a menu at the right of the page. Click on breather vents and even more information is available for the product, including specifications.

The company can be contacted through e-mail directly from the site, and the page designers had the wisdom to post the address and other contact information on the home page.

The Gits site links to the Thomas Register site, which lists manufacturers and distributors that can be accessed. The Thomas Register service is free with registration and provides boundless information for web site addresses, etc. Another link generates information on the 99 Chem Show, which is scheduled for November 16-18 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

www.ljtechnologies.com Considerable detail on Shand & Jurs vents for above-ground storage tanks is available at the web site maintained by parent company L&J Technologies, Hillside, Illinois. Shand & Jurs breather valves, flame arresters, tape gauges, swing joints, and internal safety valves also are detailed.

L&J Technologies products also are described in some detail. The company manufactures a wide range of electronic storage tank level gauging equipment utilized primarily in the petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, food processing, and pharmaceutical industries.

The company's various services can be reached by clicking on the home page divisions for GPE Controls (hydraulic controls and related systems), Omnitrol (mechanical level controls), and Shand & Jurs (industrial storage tank equipment). Offerings on the home page include the L&J valve sizing computer program that is compatible with Windows 95. The program can be ordered through an e-mail form posted on a subsequent page.

E-mail and other contact information is readily available.

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