Manufacture of customized ball valves
The challenge
A good and reliable client from the pharmaceutical industry contacted Hanwel with a major problem. Complex valves were used at several critical positions in the plant for which spare parts were becoming less and less available. The current supplier ceased to exist, which meant that in time there was a risk that no spare parts and no complete replacements would be available.
The failure of a valve in this case would result in immediate shutdown of the plant in question.
Complexity
The valves have a relatively complex three-way full bore design with ports in 120⁰, which required the ability to switch between all possible positions. The valves had to be fitted with 3-position actuators that allow this. Furthermore, the valve had to meet all applicable requirements within the pharmaceutical industry, including minimized dead spaces, finished surfaces, the use of high-quality materials and ATEX qualification.
The valves are very compactly built with little available space. This made it critical to design the housing and actuator to be as compact as possible, in line with the current design.
How did Hanwel help?
On behalf of the customer, Hanwel developed a one-to-one alternative by reverse engineering the existing drawings. Part of this solution included an almost identical housing design with weld ends and custom finishes, a three-position actuator and a flexible coupling, which allows free adjustment of the starting position of the valve without rotating the actuator. For future purposes, drawings, parts lists, spare parts and maintenance instructions were prepared in accordance with customer requirements.
The result is a one-to-one solution for the customer that allows them to move forward and prevents unplanned downtime in the future.
The result
After an initial successful test of a batch of four valves, all remaining valves at the plant were replaced with the Hanwel-developed valve. Part of the service includes a current track record of the current valves in use, including available and needed spares. In this way, the customer's risk of downtime is eliminated, with Hanwel actively monitoring parts availability.
