Manufacturing of customized ball valves
The challenge
A reliable customer from the pharmaceutical industry contacted Hanwel with a major problem. Complex valves were used at several critical positions within the factory, for which spare parts became less and less available.
The current supplier ceased to exist, which meant a risk of no parts and no complete replacements being available in the long term. Failure of a valve would in this case lead to an immediate shutdown of the factory plant and equipment.
Complexity
The valves have a complex three-way full-bore design with ports in 120⁰, with the possibility to switch between all possible positions. Furthermore, the valve had to meet all requirements applicable within the pharmaceutical industry, including minimised dead spaces, finished surfaces, the use of high-quality materials and ATEX qualification.
The valves had been built in a very compact unit with little available space. This meant the casing and actuator had to be designed as compact as possible, according to the current design.
How did Hanwel help?
On behalf of the customer, Hanwel developed a one-to-one alternative by reverse engineering the existing drawings. Part of this solution was a nearly identical housing design with welded ends and customised finishes, a three-position actuator and a flexible coupling, which allows the valve start position to be freely adjusted without having to rotate the actuator. Drawings, parts lists, spare parts and maintenance instructions have been drawn up for future purposes, in accordance with the customer’s requirements.
The result
After an initial successful test of a batch of four valves, all other valves in the factory were replaced with the valve developed by Hanwel. Part of the service includes an up-to-date track record of the current valves in use, including available and required spares.
This way, the customer’s risk of downtime is eliminated, with Hanwel actively checking the availability of parts.