Furphy Develops Laser Welded Cavity Plate
Shepparton's J.Furphy & Sons, a major fabricator of stainless steel tanks and processing equipment, has developed a new technique of welding high- pressure cavity plate for heat exchange application.
Industries including the dairy, brewing, food, wine, pulp and paper, chemical, pharmaceutical, refrigeration, textiles and manufacturing sectors will benefit from this improved cavity plate.
It has a multitude of applications including jacketed tanks, pressure vessels, shells and heads, troughing, chutes and hoppers, immersion plates, bank assemblies, baffles, ice-making plates, water chillers and food cookers.
The Laser Welded Cavity Plate was developed by Furphy Engineering division and is a first by an Australian manufacturer. Importantly, the method of manufacture also allows flexibility in the design characteristics and can therefore be tailored to comply with specific performance requirements.
The new laser welding technology affords a quality built and tested cavity plate with high-pressure capability is regarded as a significant improvement to the traditional low pressure, resistance or plug welded dimple/cavity plate which traditionally has been used for the heating or cooling jackets on stainless steel tanks, vessels and silos. As it is an in house production process, it has been extensively developed and utilized in one of Furphys core business activities - stainless steel tankage. It has resulted in vastly improved performance, costs and lead times on projects and is now a standard feature offered to all customers.
The process involves the laser welding of two sheets of stainless steel or alloy steel in their "flat" form which is then inflated to form the cavity through which the cooling or heating medium is transferred. The laser welds are exceptionally strong and have been burst tested in excess of 13,000 kPa, with most common demand being for operating pressures ranging between 300 - 3,000 kPa.
J Furphy & Sons project manager, Jason Kelly said that the cavity plate sections can be laser welded in sections up to 1.5 metres wide and virtually unlimited length or profile.
"Selection of material type and thickness depends on the application. One of the advantages of this product is that it can be offered in single or double embossed form. The former is typically applicable for tanks and processing equipment where a flat inner wall is required and the latter commonly used for immersion purposes where both sides of the plate are utilized to heat or chill" Jason added.
If not a standard Furphy product, the cavity plate can be especially designed to suit both the flow characteristics of the refrigerant or heating medium and the required performance objective for the equipment. This is simply done by programming the cavity pattern and dimensions into a CNC controlled laser welding system.
"We have invested more than two years of technical and product development in the laser welding process. We believe the result to be a most important development for our industry" Jason Kelly added.
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| Examples of Furphy Laser Welded Cavity Plate - double embossed immersion plate, single embossed tank strake and pitched cone | |
J Furphy & Sons, PO Box 7066,Shepparton 3632.
Tel: 03 5832 1400
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