Safety First: Small Accessories That Prevent Big Chemical Incidents

Most chemical spills and dosing mishaps don’t start with a blown tank. They start with small things: a stuck check, a cracked tube, a crossed line. The right metering pump accessories turn those small failures into non-events.

Relief Valves: Cheap Insurance for the Pump Head

Positive displacement pumps will keep building pressure if a valve is closed or a line plugs. Something will give. A relief valve makes sure it isn’t the pump head or tubing.

• Place it on the discharge line, close to the pump
• Pipe the outlet to a safe return (tank or containment), never to the floor
• Set it 10-15% above normal running pressure, but below the weakest component rating
• Tag the set pressure and test it during routine maintenance

If you have frequent nuisance lifts, find the cause. A relief valve is a seatbelt, not a steering wheel.

Backflow Prevention: Keep Chemistry Where it Belongs

Backflow mixes chemicals that should never meet. It also ruins dose accuracy.

• Use a spring-loaded injection quill with an integral check tip at the injection point.
• Add a back-pressure valve so the pump’s internal checks seal on every stroke.
• If you tie into potable lines, install a code-compliant backflow preventer upstream.

Test check valves and quill tips during shutdowns.

Secondary Containment: Plan for Drips, Not Disasters

Even tight systems seep. Secondary containment keeps little leaks little.

• Put metering pumps on containment trays sized for at least 110% of the largest day tank or line volume at the skid.
• Use raised pump feet or stands so leaked liquid flows under, not into, motors.
• Collect relief valve discharge in a sealed jug or plumbed return, not an open bucket.
• Add absorbent pads and neutralizer appropriate to your chemicals right at the skid.

Label the tray with the chemical name. In an incident, no one should guess.

Leak-Detect Switches: Fast Alerts Beat Fast Feet

• Place a simple conductivity or float switch in the containment tray
• Wire it to alarm and, if appropriate, stop the pump and close a solenoid on the suction
• Test the switch monthly by lifting the float or bridging the probes
• Route alarms to a named person, not a group

If you use cloud alarms, verify the phone list quarterly. People change, and numbers change.

Color-Coded Tubing and Clear Labels: Stop Cross-Connections

Many incidents start with “we grabbed the wrong line”. Make that hard to do.

• Standardize tube colours by chemical family (for example, bleach = white, acid = red, caustic = blue)
• Use printed, chemical-name labels at four points: day tank, suction, discharge, and injection point
• Put flow-direction arrows on tubing runs
• Keep a laminated “chemical map” of the skid on the wall

Do a quick team drill once a year: can a new tech trace every line in two minutes?

Simple Habits That Keep You Out of Trouble

• Inspect and tag relief valve settings during PMs
• Test leak switches and alarms monthly
• Replace quill check tips and soft tubing on a fixed schedule, not when they fail
• Keep a small spares bin: relief valve rebuild kit, quill tips, pressure transducers, gaskets, tubing, and a spare back-pressure valve
• Train to the checklist once per shift rotation; new people need muscle memory too

Want a quick safety review of your dosing setup? We can help you pick the right relief, backflow, containment, and leak-detect pieces – and set up labels and colour standards that stick.

Call Vissers Sales Corp. at 1-800-367-4180 or visit our industrial pump accessories page to get started.

Safety first is also savings first.