Special alloy products withstand heat, pressure, corrosion

28th June 2013

By: Chantelle Kotze

  

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Acontract to supply a range of high-alloy stainless steel valves, pipes, flanges and fittings was awarded to stainless steel, specialist alloys and valve supplier Energy Engineered Products and its associated company Multi Alloys in March for State-owned power utility Eskom’s R91.2-billion Medupi power station, near Lephalale, in Limpopo.

“Medupi, which means ‘a rain that soaks parched lands, giving economic relief’, will be a dry-cooled, coal-fired, baseload power plant, comprising six 800 MW units, with a 4 800 MW installed capacity – the biggest of its kind with dry cooling in the world,” says Creamer Media’s Research Channel Africa.

“More than 200 valves, including ball, check, gate, globe, butterfly and high- pressure valves and strainers, as well as several hundred metres of small- to medium-bore piping, with flanges and fittings were ordered, says Energy Engineered Products sales and operations director Graham Whitty.

The products, which will take three to four months to supply, will be used to treat effluent at the power station, ensuring that the utility complies with environmental standards.

Whitty notes that there were several last-minute design changes by the contractor, which necessitated amendments to the valve specifications. “Fortunately, the manufacturing partners could accommodate these changes without delaying delivery,” he adds.

Having supplied products to Eskom and its subcontractors for more than ten years, Energy Engineered Products and Multi Alloys are knowledgeable about Eskom’s product requirements and needs. “The uti- lity uses products, including valves, pipe, fittings, flanges, tubing and fasteners in a variety of materials, which often include special alloys that can operate not only at high temperatures and pressures, but also in corrosive environments,” he says.

The alloys used to manufacture the products have special performance characteristics that ensure effective functioning in some of the most demanding applications, he adds.

The alloys are also difficult to source, with the bulk of the alloys being imported from specialist manufacturers in Europe, the US, India and China. Energy Engineered Products and Multi Alloys have, therefore, become stockists of a range of these alloys to sup- port local industry.

Whitty points out that, as a result of the special nature of the materials, quality assurance is of the utmost importance for the products made from these special alloys.

“There has to be full trace- ability of the materials and, thus, we have invested in the necessary technology locally to ensure traceability and accu- rate record keeping, which are closely linked to our ISO 9001:2008 quality assurance programme,” he explains.

Energy Engineered Products has tendered on several similar orders for Eskom subcontractors and expects to be successful in its bid to win further business from the power generation sector.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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