July 2011 Tube ProducTs InTernaTIonal
49
Valves
Emergency separation couplings on ladle valves
Slabs, billets and other steel products
are manufactured in steel mills with
continuous casting facilities and ladle
turrets.
In continuous casting, molten steel is
continuously poured from the foundry
ladle over a tundish into the ingot mould.
If a foundry ladle is empty except for
the residual slag, the ladle valve shuts
off the steel flow into the tundish. The
ladle turret moves the next ladle over
the tundish, the ladle valve is opened
and the steel continues to flow.
The ladle valve situated under the
foundry ladle is operated by a hydraulic
cylinder.
After a crane has hooked the full
foundry ladle into the ladle turret, and
shortly before the empty ladle is to
be removed, the hydraulic cylinder is
generally removed from and attached to
the ladle valve by hand.
In the event of an operating error or
in an emergency it is often no longer
possible to release the hydraulic
cylinder under the foundry ladle
manually. If, in such a case, the crane
removes the foundry ladle from the
ladle turret and the cylinder is still
attached to the ladle, the hose lines
or pipes leading to the cylinder control
are destroyed or severely damaged.
There is also a risk of fire due to
leaking hydraulic oil.
To avoid such dangers, coupling
manufacturer Walther-Präzision has
developed a special emergency
separation system. The system
consists of two identical couplings with
a 45° angled connection. Additionally,
the two couplings HP-010-Y26 and
12-010-Y10 are mechanically coded in
a way that they may not be connected
with one another. A confusion of flow
and return line is thus prevented.
Manufactured from high quality
steel, the couplings easily resist
temperatures up to 150°C and working
pressures up to 200 bar in this harsh
environment.
The company states that using this
system pays off even after one failure.
The costs brought about by destroyed
hoses or pipes, labour costs for
repair and start up, as well as loss
of production due to downtimes are
considerably higher than the costs for
installing a set of Walther emergency
separation couplings on the ladle
valve of the foundry ladles.
Walther-Präzision
– Germany
Miniature ball valves
Beswick Engineering now offers a series
of miniature ball valves in standard
shut-off (MBV-1010), 3-way diverting
(MBVT-1010) and 3-way mixing diverting
(MBVMD-1010) configurations.
Designs offer compact size, light weight
and non-restricted flow and are an
outstanding choice for applications up
to 250 psig. The standard shut-off valve
weighs approx. 9 grams in stainless
steel and the 3-way diverting and 3-way
mixing diverting valves weigh approx.
12 grams in stainless steel. The mixing
diverting valve allows either port to be
individually selected or both ports to be
simultaneously selected with no shut-
off. All of these valves utilise 316 SS ball
elements and are available with a variety
of seals. Inlet and outlet ports are 10-32
UNF standard, with other sizes available
on request.
Beswick Engineering specialises in
high-performance miniature fluid
power components featuring captured
O-ring face seals for leak-tight sealing,
a variety of materials for corrosion
resistance, and ultra-miniature designs
for space savings. Applications include
hydrogen fuel cells, medical equipment,
instruments, laboratory equipment,
ink jet print engines, semiconductor
manufacturing equipment, homeland
defense detectors, and many others.
beswick engineering co
– USA
Emergency separation couplings
HP-010-Y26 and 12-010-Y10
