Case story

REFRACTORY LINED
EXPANSION JOINT
FOR STEEL PLANT

Steel plant

Germany

AD-B13:2011

This DN 2200 refactory lined Expansion Joint is designed, manufactured and tested for Steel plant in Germany.

 

Belman Solution

A typical Expansion Joint solution for a Steel Plant

To one of Belman repeating customers, Belman has been a trusted partner for manufacturing Expansion Joints for their steel plants for many years. This time Belman delivered a Refratory Lined Expansion Joint design, which is a typical design for steel plants and therefore widely used across steel plants with customization according to client requirements. This Refractory Lined Expansion Joint is a best example of a typical design applicability of Refractory Lined Expansion Joints and the benefits for steel plant requirements. This DN 2200 Refractory Lined Expansion Joint is installed in a hot blast pipeline near the blast furnace at the steel plant.

 

The Refractory Lined Expansion Joint design applicability for steel plants

This Refractory Lined Expansion Joint has been customized for the application by ensuring the installation and operating conditions of the steel plant.  Design calculations for the Refractory Lined Expansion Joint construction was made in accordance with AD-B13-2011. Moreover, it is designed to absorb several types of movement simultaneously, including; axial, lateral and angular movements. Also, this design incorporates a double bellow construction with tie rods to assist further controlled absorption of the movements in the pipeline. There is a conical end at the top of the Refractory Lined Expansion Joint due to the different sizes of the connecting pipes on each side of the Refractory Lined Expansion Joint. Due to the medium’s high temperature, the inner sleeve is made from the heat resistant austenitic steel 1.4828, and the bellow is made from 1.4571.

 

Refractory lining to avoid high-cost factor

A typical Expansion Joint design for a steel plant could consist of a Refractory Lined Expansion Joint solution as per the insulation requirements, mainly due to the pipeline on the installation point of the steel plant being usually refractory lined to reduce the temperature. Refectory lining is a certain level of cost-effective solution i.e. if there is protective insulation from the high temperature medium, the pipes and installed components would have to be produced from high alloy steel, which could result for a high material cost. Therefore, many such pipelines are made from regular stainless steel and then refractory lined to avoid the high-cost factor. For this project, the refractory lining was carried out by industry experts as per the specifications of the client.