The integrity of flange connections is very important for conveying fluid piping systems. Whether it is the pipeline system transporting chemical medium (such as hydrocarbons) or the water supply pipeline, the leakage of the flange connection will cause serious environmental and economic effects, and may even bring huge potential safety hazards. If flanges are not protected, exposed to corrosive atmospheres or polluted industrial atmospheres, the corrosion rate will be very fast.
In addition, because of the complex geometry of the stainless steel flange connection, the gap corrosion between two flanges and the problem of galvanic corrosion between different metals will seriously damage the integrity of the pipeline system. This article introduces several practical methods to solve flange corrosion.
In order to meet the demanding production needs and reduce the sudden shutdown caused by leakage, effective monitoring and detection is essential. Usually, technicians are more concerned about the leakage problems between carbon steel flanges, but ignore the protection of the fasteners and pipes, and may cause extremely serious consequences in the harsh external environment. The lack of external protection accelerates and expands the damage of the flange and fasteners to accelerate the deterioration of the whole sealing system, which may quickly destroy the structural integrity of the system and cause the seal failure.
Because the visual inspection of the flange connection sealing surface can only be carried out when the whole system is shut down, the inspection procedure should be as simple as possible, so the external corrosion should be eliminated first. If the machine can’t stop, it can only be detected by ultrasonic technology, the process will be more complex and can not get the accurate test results when the external corrosion is uncontrolled. Therefore, in order to monitor the whole system and provide effective and feasible quality control and maintenance procedures, the external corrosion protection of carbon steel flanges and fasteners is very important.
