Polcon Pro-Valve®

In place of the Access database, M.E. Simpson Co. Inc. will provide our Polcon Pro-Valve^® online database.

Polcon Pro-Valve^® continues to be developed in house at M.E. Simpson Co. Inc. allowing us total control over the design of the product.  Our program is based online in a secure server that only allows selected users access to the information through login/passwords.  The advantage of this program allows you the flexibility to view your valve information from any where.

The data saved in Polcon Pro-Valve^® can be read and manipulated with any other database product that supports Object Database Connectivity (ODBC).  This provides flexibility to a user that needs to cross platforms. 

The images that are drawn in Polcon Pro-Valve^® are drawn using a stand-alone program called "TurboCad" by IMSI.   This program has many tools and can be used to make an extremely detailed drawing of the valve area.  Also, editing the drawings is much easier in TurboCad because every item in a drawing is a separate object which can be selected and edited by simply pointing and clicking.

This software was developed to keep track of all the information that is associated with main line water valves. There are three areas of information that are recorded in Polcon Pro-Valve^®.  The first area is the valve card.  The valve card keeps all the information about the valve that normally doesn’t change year to year including:

• Valve number
• Map page number
• Street name
• Cross-street name
• Size
• Turn Direction
• Type
• Operating nut depth
• Position
• Box style
• Site
• x-y Coordinates of the valve

The second area is the valve exercising history. As valves are turned year to year some information changes, this information is kept in ascending order by date so that the most recent information for the valve is always on top. Probably the most important piece of history information is the valve code.  The valve code is used to organize the valves into groups.  For example: a valve with no problems is coded “Valve OK” a valve that can not be exercised because of debris in the box is coded “Box full of debris”.  There are many other valve codes describing the condition of the valves.  The history section includes:

• Turn date
• Number of turns
• Technician
• Machine torque ratings
• Valve Codes
• Comments

The third area is the drawing area.  Each valve has an associated image assigned to it.  The image is currently drawn in an outside stand-alone program called “TurboCad” by IMSI.  The drawing is then embedded into the database and assigned to the proper valves.  The drawings are not to scale but are a proportional representation of the area around the valve. 

Information alone is useless.  In order to make the information worth having it must be used and Pro-Valve^® makes that easier to do.  Pro-Valve^® software pulls all the valve information together into a variety of reports.  Reports include:

• Exception Report
• Valve Listing by Number
• Valve Listing by Street
• Problem Valve List (Useful for Work Orders)