Project Stenflex rubber expansion joints

A company in the steel industry was experiencing a cracked rubber expansion joint on a primary cooling line. The standard PN16 rubber bellows were found to be unable to withstand a continuous temperature of 95°C at 6 bar when installed for long periods of time.

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As a result, the rubber bellows could no longer function, which then causes the cooling circuit to fail. The major risk was that the boiler would now go into overdrive.

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In cooperation with the manufacturer, it was decided to design a version with pressure class PN25 for the rubber bellows for these diameters. For the flange connection, the original PN16 flanges were retained. Thus, Hanwel supplied the required rubber compensators.

The service life of these critical expansion joints was significantly extended. In this way, the business risk was significantly reduced by eliminating the possibility of production downtime.