Testing to ASME standards for enhanced product safety
Rupture discs are critical safety products that protect pressurized systems. They are designed to relieve excess pressure safely and quickly, and there are two key characteristics that allow them to do this:
First, they are designed to burst – or rupture – at a set pressure. It is essential that they do this: Discs that burst too early can cause unnecessary downtime, while discs that burst too late can bring about the exact catastrophic equipment failure they are intended to prevent.
Secondly, their discharge capacity must allow fluids within the pressurized system to escape in a way that allows the pressure to decrease to safe levels without causing further damage. It is important to calculate and then verify a bursting disc’s free flow area and resistance to flow, or Kr value, to ensure the discharge capacity is suitable for a disc’s particular application.
Our Flow Laboratories allows us to calculate precise values for the minimum and maximum burst pressures as well as the Minimum Net Flow Area (MNFA) and Kr values for our rupture discs. Both our Flow Labs—one in Broken Arrow, USA, and one in North Shields, UK—are constructed and used in accordance with the requirements of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC).
This allows us to carry out capacity testing, and to apply the ASME UD-stamp to a wide range of rupture discs for systems built to ASME pressure vessel codes. The UD stamp is a legal requirement for many states and provinces in the USA and Canada. In addition, over 100 countries accept it as a means of meeting government safety regulations. Even where the UD stamping is not required, it still demonstrates that the rupture disc conforms to established safety standards and may be relied on to perform as expected.
Rapid Product Development
Many of the pressure relief solutions that we provide are manufactured as one-off, customized solutions tailored to the specific needs of our customers. We work with them to develop new solutions, either adapting an existing product or building a new product from scratch.
With in-house ASME Flow Labs, National Board representatives can authorize our rupture discs on-site. This considerably speeds up both the initial certification process for new discs and audits to re-authorize UD-stamped discs. This flexibility enables us to work smoothly with your timelines and production requirements.
Quality Assurance
Using a bursting disc marked with a UD stamp gives you reassurance that the product has been through a leading, universally recognised, independent quality assurance programme. It verifies that the disc conforms to the ASME Section VIII guidelines for safety and quality. You can therefore be confident that the disc is safe and of a high quality, and will perform reliably and consistently.
Contact our team to learn more about OsecoElfab’s ASME testing and validation services.