We live in a time of tremendous technological advancement. This seems like an obvious statement … we spend our time on devices connected to a world of silicon and electrical impulses, we put a person on the moon, and our smart phones have more processing power than NASA had to put Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface.
Often though we forget the little wonders of our day-to-day life. Turning a key and having a shiny metal box on 4 rubber tires get us to work or school. And coming back from work to a house kept warm, safely. We don’t see as many cars broken down and stranded at the side of the highway and we don’t hear of daily catastrophes from faulty furnaces. And so many of these are the result of hard work on many fronts, and often as the result of tragedy.
In 1905 an explosion of a fire-tube boiler at the Grover Shoe Factory in Boston killed 58 people and injured 150. And so began the development of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler and Pressure Vessel code. We all benefit from the foresight shown by individuals who knew we are always capable of doing better.
Today companies like Sure Flow are ensuring that the vision of those pioneers of quality standards is upheld and becomes part of the fabric of the manufacturing process. Sure Flow’s ASME U Stamp certification requires that we follow stringent requirements to manufacture our pressure vessels, and test to ensure that our product meets the standard.
Our hydrostatic testing involves filling the vessel (our fabricated strainers and valves) with water and pressurizing it to a specified test pressure. The pressure we test for is considerably higher than the pressure the product will operate under to give a factor of safety. This is where the specific requirements as set out and refined through by ASME ensure the that our products will perform up to the standard.
Sure Flow has an expert team in the testing department. This particular test was on a large stainless steel basket strainer and the pressure test lasted 5 hours for each unit.
We have a second hydrostatic testing unit that can test several smaller strainers simultaneously.
Sure Flow also has a mobile hydrostatic tester because some of the products that we fabricate are just too large to fit in our existing systems or can’t be moved conveniently, so we take the tester to them.
This is an example of a dual basket strainer that needed the hydrostatic testing taken to its location!
With the variety of products that Sure Flow fabricates, we often need one of these ‘blind flanges.’
They have half couplings welded on them to allow us to fill and drain the larger strainers we perform hydrostatic testing on. Some of our more complex fabricated strainers will also have multiple ports that must be sealed for hydrostatic testing, so our blind flanges allow us to handle these situations.
Here are 6 FWT Carbon Steel high pressure 2500 lb RTJ Fabricated Strainers joined together for their hydrotesting.
Our testing has no limits to how big or small a unit we will test to ensure our products outperform expectations. Here our Quality Control Manager David Crespo, P.Eng, is testing Cast Iron Y-Strainers to ensure the threads are 100% perfect.
Sure Flow has a stringent quality control process. After a quarter century of providing exceptional quality industrial valves and strainers, our customers have come to know they can count on us to ‘deliver’ and ‘outperform!’ Our testing is a vital part of our quality control formula.