Tuesday 8 April 2014

Pressure vessel shape matters - some safety parameters used by pressure vessel manufacturer

 Pressure vessels are widely used in many industrial sectors where transport and storage of many type of pressure gases are essential. These vessels must be designed, manufactured, operated and installed in accordance with appropriate codes and standard.

ASME first published boiler and pressure code in 1915. Earlier, these are the closed container designed to hold liquid and gases at different ambient pressure. Generally, these vessels are designed in form of spherical and cylindrical tank.  High pressure vessels are necessary for holding gases like compressed air, oxygen, natural gas and many more variety of liquid and gases. Since low quality vessels have higher chance of leaking, imploding, bursting that can be dangerous for people. Thus it is important to choose only high quality pressure vessels.

Pressure vessels come in any shape and size. These shapes and sizes affect function and strength of vessel. Spheres, cylindrical, cone shapes are mostly used. In cylindrical shape used end cap called head. These head are used in pressure vessels as dishes and in round design. According to ASME more complicated shapes have been more difficult to analyze as well as difficult to construct.  Shape shows the strength of pressure vessel. Spherical pressure vessels have twice strength as compare to cylindrical pressure vessels.

Some safe parameters for pressure vessels


Raw Materials: for safety point of view choosing the best raw material. If it is not properly grade, then pressure vessel cannot be suitable for use. For manufacturing process, use only high grade stainless steel and use nuts and bolts of particular size. Good Specification provides metal further strong. A few builders also provide skid assemblies for better safety in industrial application.
Welding: All creatures are required to follow welding guidelines provided by ASME. Company hires employees who have passed the ASME qualification test. Welder is needed to stamp the work provided by manufacturer.

Testing:  the testing process is pivotal stage as this will ascertain pressure vessel is ready for use. Process starts with testing the strength and thickness of steel plates. Final test is that used to determine whether vessel can withstand the required hydrostatic test. Vessel is completely filled with water and is pressurized 1.5 time allowable working pressure. If vessel maintains the pressure for at least an hour, then it is ready to use.


All these method ensure that pressure vessel for industrial application meet safety requirement and will work under condition.