Gas Control Valve Application
We were asked to provide a Gas Control Valve that could deliver precision flow control at very low temperatures (-196 C) with high differential pressure from the fully closed position to the fully open position and for the valve to have a 420bar max working pressure.
We had 3 main problems to solve.
1: Gas Temperature would be between -160 to -196 C
2: Differential pressure could be as high as 320bar
3: Precision control across the range specified
We supplied our CR8000 Series LowFlow Control Valve. This offered the 420bar operating pressure and full -196C temperature and had all the basic functions required. The CR denotes it is a suitable for full Cryogenic temperatures.
The CR8000 series still needed to be modified to meet this demanding application. The CR8000 series has several seat sizes and shapes so we could select the one that matched the flow curve our customer required.
We made still had to make 3 changes to the standard valve design.
1: Seat material was changed to a PEEK material, Harder and more resistant.
2: Valve Tip and Stem was made as a single unit, one piece rather than the 2 parts used in the standard valve. This change with the Peek Seat offered increased control and stability across the full stroke range of the valve and increased the operational life of the valve considerably.
3: The normal Actuator would be a 3-15psi unit, we increased this to a 6-30psi unit as this gave a smoother control movement when the valve was under high differential pressure.
These valves have been in service for several years now, the application they are on is a 24/7 365 process and they cycle many times every hour.
What this application has proven is that we can work with our customers to deliver an engineered solution that is very reliable and safe.