Valve with load cell

Abstract

The embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method for preserving the integrity of a packing and the integrity a stem of a valve, having the steps of providing a gland ring mounted above the packing surrounding the stem; providing a gland retainer mounted above the gland ring, wherein the gland retainer is secured to the valve with one or more fasteners, wherein the gland retainer is a load cell; sensing a compressional force between a top surface and a bottom surface of the gland retainer; converting the sensed each compressional force into a data point; and transmitting the data point to a computing unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.