The Critical Work of Pressure Vessel Parts

Pressure vessels move media, including oil, compressed gas, hot water, chemicals, steam, and acid throughout a system. These systems are often essential to military, oil and gas, nuclear, food and beverage, or petrochemical operations, where it is critical that the pressure is retained. A boiler system on an aircraft carrier, a pump at an oil refinery, and a sanitation system at a food manufacturing facility all need to be designed and regulated to strict standards to ensure safety, efficiency, and control.

More than 80% of production at Stainless Foundry & Engineering (SF&E) is made up of pump and valve components for pressure vessel applications. The engineering team adheres to a high level of customer order specifications as well as rigorous evaluation, inspection, and testing procedures following Pressure Equipment Directives (PED) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards.

“Following all the rules and regulations required to cast, process, and eventually certify high-specification castings requires dedicated metallurgists, process engineers, foundry engineers, and quality management and quality assurance personnel,” said Michael Porfilio, Director of Quality for SF&E.

SF&E has produced pressure vessel components for more than 50 years. Our highly trained, evaluated and certified team works with customers at every stage, from selecting one of the more than 250 alloys we pour, designing and producing a sand or investment casting, and completing onsite non-destructive testing (NDT) and finishing.

 

Material Selection

Many high-pressure applications involve environments that face challenging conditions, such as corrosion, stress from high loads, and fatigue from continuous movement. To ensure longevity and performance, the materials used in each casting must offer corrosion resistance, high strength, and resistance to wear. Copper nickel alloys such as C96400 and austenitic stainless steel are common, but each alloy is selected based on the environment and the customer specification.

Turbonetics Engineering & Services, a Texas-based engineering firm specializing in the repair and upgrade of pumps enlisted SF&E to help with the casting and machining of a new double suction volute pump casing designed for an oil refinery.

The slurry that moves through pressure vessels at oil refineries is so abrasive that it erodes large, industrial, heavy duty pump parts in a matter of months. The double suction casing alone had a pour weight of 6,800 pounds.

Turbonetics developed a new pump design for their customer with the goal of increasing pump longevity, in part because of the material selection of Illium PD.

Pump Case Sand Casting Oil and Gas

Metallurgical specifications contain chemical ranges and mechanical properties such as tensile & yield strength, elongation, and reduction of area, according to Porfilio. These properties ensure that the produced material and the heat treatment applied to them meet the minimum properties of that specification for the necessary environment. Once the alloy is selected, the quality of the final part is dependent on the integrity of the pour, heat treatment, cleaning methods, machining and inspection.

 

Quality Improvement

Once a part is completed, NDT methods are leveraged to certify a part to customer specifications, but also to identify ways to improve the quality of a part. NDT confirms the part has good solidification and is free of defects that would cause failure under pressure. The PED follows NDT techniques including radiography (RT), magnetic particle (MT), liquid penetrant (PT), ultrasonic testing (UT), and visual testing (VT).

“High-specification products require qualification of the physical condition of the casting both on the surface and volumetrically,” Porfilio said. “For work that ends up in pressure applications, the pressure codes all require different levels of inspection to ensure quality.”

Hydro-Thermal, a global leader in on-demand steam injection fluid heating, cooking and processing systems, relies on SF&E to cast pump and valve parts for their Direct Steam Injection (DSI) technology. DSI heaters modulate steam at the injection point, providing exceptional heat transfer activity. This results in significant energy cost savings, efficient control of process fluids, and the ability to handle high-viscosity slurries without burn-on.

direct steam injection DSI heating solution

One critical part is the diffuser, which controls how steam is injected into fluid in a Hydroheater. Prior to working with SF&E, Hydro-Thermal relied on foundries to produce the diffuser, which are then machined, welded and machined again by Hydro-Thermal to create one final piece. The design of the diffuser is important – the pattern and location of the holes are what makes it effective for a specific application – and Hydro-Thermal’s foundry was struggling with porosity.

The SF&E engineering team considered the configuration of the mold, alloy shrink rate, past quality issues and conducted simulation modeling. They recommended re-engineering the core for counter balance to avoid core float and removed a cap to create an open end, which would eliminate a weld assembly step. The casting yielded good quality, which the team validated through penetrant and radiography testing.

All parts that SF&E produces for Hydro-Thermal complete a process that ensures every step meets the stringent standards of their 2014/68/EU PED certification.

If you are looking for help with a pressure vessel pump or valve component, contact us today.

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