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  • CASE STUDY  |  OIL & GAS

    Urgent DPE Spring Energised Seals

    An international valve service provider had a problem sourcing replacement seals for an urgent valve repair that had to be back in service within 14 days. Our client had already approached the OEM for the seals who quoted a lead-time of 8 to 10 weeks, which was unacceptable and nowhere near the delivery timescale that was required. Fortunately, one of our lead engineers had recently been stationed in the UK on a different project that involved M Seals. We had supplied engineered seals and components for a valve that also required an urgent overhaul. Impressed by the high level of service he experienced there, he recommended that they turn to us for help.


    Assessment

    Our client was based in Canada so there was a 7 hour time difference, which meant all correspondence was done through email and Skype conference calls where possible. We were provided with an outline of the valve design which was a Double Piston Effect (DPE) Ball Valve and confirmed sizes of the seal pocket dimensions, along with images of the DPE seals that had been removed from the valve. It was confirmed that the valve had been in service for 10 months and the service conditions were as follows:

    Service Media: Hydrocarbons
    Design Pressure: 440 bar
    Design Temp Range: -100°C to +180°C

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  • Solution

    Our technical team identified the appropriate seal jacket, back-up ring and spring materials that were required according to the application details and produced drawings of the seals to be used in our CAD/CAM manufacturing software. The seals were produced using high performance grades of PTFE and PEEK which both had Norsok M-710 Annex C qualification and a cantilever U-Spring energiser was installed into the seals.


    Result

    The new Double Piston Effect (DPE) seals were collected by our customer only 3 days after our initial assessment and then installed into the DPE ball valve just 2 days later. The valve was Nitrogen gas tested in an underwater chamber facility, delivered back to the end-user and back in service almost a week earlier than requested.