For processors and OEMs, innovative rupture disk design is delivering high performance pressure relief while dramatically reducing the materials and energy traditionally spent in the manufacturing process.
Rupture disk devices serve as an effective passive safety mechanism to protect against potentially damaging overpressure or vacuum conditions in industrial processes working with gases and liquids. When a specific over or under pressure event takes place, each disk is engineered to burst. This rapid burst causes a quick transition from a sealed state to a fully open flow configuration that the user has matched to their application requirements. Once this occurs, the ruptured disk is replaced.
Today, as industries seek to enhance sustainability, innovative rupture disk manufacturing has introduced more eco-friendly options such as the LSR™ by BS&B Safety Systems. As an example, engineers at the OEM discovered that modifying the manufacturing process not only delivered the required high performance pressure relief, but also significantly reduced the materials and energy required throughout the entire production cycle.
“Because the rupture disk is manufactured using only a fraction of the materials and energy during the manufacturing process, it is a ‘green’ solution that can provide reliable performance even at lower pressures,” says Geof Brazier, Director of Development of BS&B Safety Systems.
According to Brazier, the rupture disk’s unique approach to single-piece construction is the primary factor that helps minimize material usage as well as simplify material disposal at end of life.
A patented, proprietary score design provides a hinge action that allows the disk to open as a “single petal” engineered for non-fragmentation while providing a high flow area for pressure relief. The ‘curl’ at the ends of the circular score line also has an engineered geometry that manages the desired opening pattern. This improves a key feature of circular scored reverse buckling disks, which typically require a second downstream hinge component.
By eliminating this downstream hinge component, over 80% by weight of the raw material required for a typical rupture disk can be eliminated, a factor that also reduces shipping costs.
For more information, contact BS&B Safety Systems: call: (918) 622-5950, e-mail: [email protected]; visit www.bsbsystems.com.