Expansion Joints for a Large FCC at the OMW Refinery

In Germany Supplied by Senior Flexonics Pathway

When the OMW Refinery in Karlsruhe, Germany decided to add a new power recovery turbine to their FCC, they hired Brown and Root Braun in Alhambra, California to engineer the project. Senior Flexonics Pathway was awarded the order to furnish the expansion joints for the new installation.

Several of the hinge and gimbal expansion joints were conventional cold shell construction. However, the real challenges were to be found in designing the hot shell pressure balanced expansion joints located near the power recovery turbine. These assemblies were required to have very low spring rates to limit loading on the turbine and adjacent piping. The pressure thrust restraining attachments to the pipe were designed as floating ring structures to allow the pipe to grow radially with respect to the attachment hardware. This concept eliminates the possibility of pipe cracking due to differential thermal growth between the pipe and the attachment hardware.

The “floating ring” concept was first developed to help solve pipe cracking problems. Several years ago, Senior Flexonics Pathway Bellows resurrected this idea. Since then, Senior Flexonics Pathway has improved and promoted this idea for hot shell expansion joint applications. Many years of successful use of floating rings have proved the value of this design concept.

This was a large contract (in excess of $1,000,000) with equally large assemblies, the largest of which weighed in at 64,000 pounds. Senior Flexonics Pathway has special high bay work spaces designed to handle very large parts safely and efficiently. These special work areas provide the flexibility to proceed on a large contract without losing the ability to handle normal workflow.

To inquire about expansion joints for FCC service or other critical applications, contact Senior Flexonics Pathway.