The publication of new international standards and codes; such as ISO15848, aimed at promoting more environmentally friendly designs, has prompted PEKOS to develop the new

There was a mixed group of people with very different backgrounds. Novice and Experienced Divers, Underwater Photographers, Film Crew and Marine Biologists.

The entire trip was filmed by an Australian film crew and has now been made into a series of six short documentaries. Each film shows life on a live-a-board, with some amazing underwater photography as well as documenting visits to some remote island communities.

This was a non profitable project, with any royalties being dedicated to the local community to improve their reef awareness and reef / marine life protection.

Nick Flint from A.C Valves joined the expedition to Komodo Island and as a first time diver experienced an amazing once in a lifetime adventure.

You can follow the trip by going to WWW.LOCOTV.COM.AU and checking out the “Komodo adventure dives”. A book with some of the amazing underwater photos will also be published soon.

Nick Flint on his first adventure dive off Komodo Island – Indonesia.
Nick passed his PADI open water dive qualification whilst on the trip, enabling him to explore some of the best dive sites in the world.

Beach cleaning on Komodo Island. It was amazing to discover the vast array of items washed up on the beaches of Komodo Island, it had to be seen to be believed. Disposable Razers, Plastic Bottles, Cigarette Lighters, so much rubbish, so many environmental issues, it really makes you think what we’re doing to the planet.

Visit to one of the villages on Komodo Island. The Children were given gifts that were enthusiastically accepted.

Finishing in Sunderland, the trip of approx 150 miles takes in some of the most beautiful parts of England, including some of its biggest hills!

The group consisted of eleven A.C Valves employees together with friends and a vital support team.

We all gathered in Whitehaven, with the traditional dipping of the rear wheel in the Irish sea. The gentle ride out of the town disguises the climbs ahead. The group slowly stretches out, with the older, wiser cyclists deciding on a more gentle starting pace.

The journey through the lakes is beautiful and can be appreciated so much more on a bike.
Some good challenging climbs finally bring us to our first campsite at a small village called Greystoke, cold beer and a sizzling BBQ is a fantastic sight at the end of 8 hours in the saddle.

A giant bowl of porridge keeps us going for the climb up into the Pennines, better not to know what’s ahead. Horizontal hale stones was a particular highlight at the end of a tiring day.
The nights camp at Allenheads was cold , but more good food and good company kept us all in a positive mood.

The final days ride was a tough climb early on but a fantastic ride down Waskerly Way was worth all the previous hard effort. We finally reached civilization and the finish in South Shields.

So many happy faces, weary but satisfied with their individual achievement.
Everybody pushed themselves to their limit and beyond.
A well deserved night out and a comfortable hotel bed was enjoyed by all.

This was a terrific experience, some no doubt will not want to see another bike seat for a long time, others have already purchased new bikes, ready for the next challenge.

Apart from the physical challenge we also dedicated the event to fund raising for local charities.
Lots of hard fund raising from riders together with support from A.C Valves & some of their suppliers resulted in over £7500.00 being raised.

The proceeds have been split between two local charities that have particular significance. The liver foundation trust at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, and Tinkerbellas wishes supporting children’s brain tumour research.

Once you get the cycling bug it’s difficult to let go, we are already planning our next adventure.

The C2C Adventurers: Luke Chambers (A.C.Valves), Shaun Bowler, Alan Kurnatowski, Richard Clapp (LG Valves) Rob Brettell, Steve Craddock (A.C.Valves),Bev Johncock (A.C.Valves), Stuart Johncock Ray Lewis (A.C.Valves), Glenn Mortimore (A.C.Valves), Steve Gillott, Dean Findell (& Jack) Dan Bower (A.C.Valves), Harry Flint, Duncan Flint, Jason Dodd, Des Clements, Gary Plant (A.C.Valves), Mark Conway (A.C.Valves), Nick Flint (A.C.Valves), Malc Shaw, Dave Rousseau, Nick Smalley, Ben Smalley

The Support Team Without our fantastic support team of Simon Lane & Jessica Calvert (A.C.Valves) this trip would not have been possible. Also helping with tent erection and masseuse services were Rosie & Liesl Johncock.

This new series offers two principal design advantages.  Firstly, a new stem and; secondly, a stem packing design that produces a far more versatile and environmentally friendly valve with extremely low fugitive emissions.

All floating and guided valves of size 6” / DN 125 and above, class 150 / 300 or PN 16 / 40 are already being assembled with the “Z Series” stem design as a standard. The extension of this through smaller sizes will be carried out progressively.

Principal features

The new “Z series” principal advantages and characteristics can be summed up as follows:

a) Increased Versatility

With the introduction of this new stem design, the top flange system now meets the SHELL SPE 77/211 specification. This brings not only technical but economic benefits.

b) Enhanced Environmental Efficiency

Current technological developments and innovations are focused on applying “cleansing technologies” in order to achieve sustainable growth. To this end, Pekos’ new stem packing system has been improved upon with the addition of 2 stem sealing joints in an optimized design.  The addition of a graphite sealing joint, safeguards the valve designs fire safe accreditation. By adding a soft sealing joint of PTFE (or reinforced PTFE), more resistance against media as well as higher tightness is achieved. There is also the option of incorporating a third elastomeric sealing joint at stem (such as: viton, epdm, nitrile, etc.)

The optimum stem tightness of this valve makes it perfect for a wide range of environmentally demanding services such as pollutant services, toxic services (carcinogenic, mutagenic) or hazardous services (explosive, flammable), and  generally all types of gaseous services, vapours or volatile compounds in which fugitive emissions to atmosphere need to be controlled.