Patent ID: 8421643

Claim:
A method for testing valve seating integrity for a valve, the method comprising: providing a process control system including a valve; receiving a control signal value from a controller of the process control system; operating the valve in accordance with the control signal value that reflects the extent to which the valve is to be open; performing a valve closing operation according to the received control signal value; reading the control signal value and position data of the valve; determining whether the control signal value is below a predetermined cutoff value associated with the valve seating integrity; when the control signal value is determined to be below the predetermined cutoff value, determining whether the position data is above the cutoff value; when the position data is determined to be above the cutoff value, reading and storing the position data and pressure data associated with the valve closing operation; determining whether the position data indicates a continuation of the valve closing operation; while the position data indicates a continuation of the valve closing operation, continuing the reading and storing of the position data and the pressure data associated with the valve closing operation; performing a comparison between the stored position data and pressure data accumulated during the valve closing operation to a previously stored set of position data and pressure data corresponding to an acceptable valve seating integrity; making a determination from the comparison whether a predetermined threshold associated with the previously stored set of position data and pressure data has been exceeded; and generating an alert in response to the determination that the threshold was exceeded.