If you want to ensure that the old flanges continue to work smoothly without any issues with the joint integrity, flange facing needs to be performed. Flange facing is a machine service on the flange surface that you can perform during repair and maintenance. Timely repair and maintenance of the flange help avoid corrosion and leakages, increasing the flanges’ service life.
Meaning of flange facing
Flange facing is the process through which the machining work resurfaces the flanges. It helps to create new mating surfaces that ensure a perfect seal when you assemble it. Flange facing is done using a tool known as the flange facing tool, flange facers, or flange facing machine.
Flange facing is an important activity in power generation, chemical, food processing, pipelines, pharmaceutical production, refinery, petrochemicals, and gas and oil industries. Additionally, the following industries use the flange facing operations while shooting down and maintenance of their plant:
- Fluid control industries
- Shipyards
- Tube processing
- Defense
- Diesel Engineer
- High-Purity industry
- Nuclear industry
Requirement of Flange Facing
Flanges are usually pressurized during the operation; hence, they regularly experience damage due to the turbulent flow. Additionally, they tend to experience impacts with other components while installation, construction, or cuts from the gasket leaks.
Flange facing cuts the flanges and provides them with a spiral-grooved finish. It helps the flange to be less susceptible to leaks as fluids are forced to travel down the instead paths rather across the flange face. Flange facing is the topmost important repair job during plant maintenance or shutdown activities.
Applications of Flange Facing
The flange-facing work requires the following activities:
- Flange milling wind tower section
- Re-facing repairing and valve flange heat exchangers.
- Re-facing ship hatch sealing surfaces.
- Plate and vessel weld prep.
- Repairing ring grooves or cutting new groves.
- Boiler feed pump flanges.
- Repairing piston rod mating flanges.
- Ship thruster mount milling, drilling, and facing.
- Phonographic finish flanges and repairing flat face raised face.
- For sealing, beveling, facing, and weld preparation of the pipe are required.
- Re-machining, the gasket seal on the tube sheets.
- Resurfacing large pump base housings.
- Repairing a heat exchanger and other equipment nozzle flanges.
- Re-facing of pipeline or pipe flanges.
Flange facing machine
Flange-facing machines are useful tools to mechanically cut or polish disks, flanges, rings, or collars. Flanges in the piping industry usually get deformed (dents, scratches, etc.) or corroded during handling or operation. If you want to ensure the integrity of flange joints, these damages are removed using a clamshell/split frame cutter known as the flange-facing machine.
Working of flange facing machine
The cutting tool of the flanging machine often travels in a spiral path across the flange face. It removes the damage from the flange face. The cutting/polishing or polishing operation is done through successive strips that ensure regularity and face flatness. Once the flange facing is done, the flange quality and proper sealing capabilities are achieved.
Finishes as per the ASME B16.5 specifications achieved and created using feeds. Flange-facing machines are quite flexible for operations. You can mount them at any angle, including the inverted orientation. In addition, the facing arm of the flange face can be balanced using adjustable counterweights when you do not mount them horizontally.
The face of flange process usually involves the following steps:
- Fine machining with insert bits.
- Low feeding, low rotation
- Machining with a cutting tool
- Cleaning of the flange face surface
Kinds of Flange Facing Machines
It all depends on the powering of flange-facing machines that various kinds flange facing machines are available in the market. The common kind of flange facers are:
- Hydraulic flange facing machine
- Pneumatic flange-facing machine
Flange-facing machines are available in two types, depending on the mounting mechanism:
- Outside Diameter (OD) mounted flange facing machine and
- Internal Diameter (ID) mounted flange facer.
Conclusion
You may need to consult the fitting distributor to determine your project’s right flange face. For more information on sourcing, suitable flanges face for your project, contact Texas Flange.