The ‘Phase’ range includes numerous variations of soft and metal seated side entry ball valves, used for the safe isolation of pipeline production and process equipment. These valves are often used in erosive operating environments, so the new valve required a durable protective coating. The Phase range comes in both metal to metal and soft seated options which posed additional considerations.Metal to metal seated valves often suffer wear by erosion when there is particulate in the process fluid. Most ball valves are soft seated, but wear can also cause scratches and resultant leakage.
Heap & Partners selected Hardide-T for use in the range, particularly in the smaller diameter valves, for several reasons, including the inherent hardness of Hardide-T, at 1100 to 1600 Hv with a typical coating thickness of 50 microns. Hardide-T is produced in a gas-phase CVD (chemical vapour deposition) process.
“The Hardide coating achieved excellent results, meeting all the required leakage rates and delivering consistent results on various substrates,” said Peter Burnett, business development manager at Heap & Partners. “We also chose to partner with Hardide Coatings as we worked with the team previously on a project in the nuclear sector to tackle a corrosion issue and carry out re-engineering of valves.”
Corrosion resistance
Heap & Partners has now utilised Hardide-T on many ball valve applications for both oil and gas and nuclear clients. There have been no wear issues since employing the coating and it has provided protection from erosion. In some cases the Hardide coating has also improved the corrosion resistance of the base material.
