Whether they are welded, screwed, or bolted together in a flanged joint, MISTRAS provides an array of inspection and maintenance services for this essential piece of asset componentry.
Used to connect pipes, valves, pumps, and other assets, ensuring your flanges are operating safely is critical to the integrity of piping systems.
Given the intense conditions that process facility equipment often experiences, flanges are subject to a variety of defects, including corrosion, scratching, gouging, pitting, and denting. These defects can lead to flange leaks that waste costly resources and slow your facility’s production, or even lead to an unplanned shutdown in the case of severe leaks. And given the nature of refinery processes, leaks are not only wasteful, but can create a hazard for both machinery and for facility personnel.
MISTRAS offers non-destructive testing inspection (NDT) solutions to ensure that the flanges in your facility comply with industry standards and are free of faults that could lead to leaks and other defects. Our technicians are trained and certified to detect and identify flange damages, quickly, efficiently, and accurately, along with repairing defects and servicing damage once leaks are detected.
Our non-destructive inspection techniques can be applied to flanges of any material, including stainless steel, cast iron, aluminum, brass, bronze, plastic, and others. We help to detect and prevent flange leakage, commonly caused by:
- Uneven Bolt Stress
- Improper Flange Alignment
- Improper Gasket Centering
- Dirty or Damaged Flanged Faces
- Thermal Shock
- Improper Gasket Size or Material
- High Vibration Levels
- Improper Flange Facing
In-Service Flange Inspection Services
MISTRAS has a range of non-destructive testing solutions for flange inspection to both detect and identify faults in the componentry. Utilizing ultrasonic and phased array technology, technicians can source and determine corrosion damage, sizing the depth of corrosion across the flange face to assist with further repair and rehabilitation. Our flange inspection and maintenance capabilities identify both flanges with existing defects and at-risk flanges before they cause further problems, helping optimize production and improve asset health.
Hydrofluoric (HF) Alkylation Flange Face Inspection
Piping flanges in hydrofluoric (HF) acid systems are typically subject to under-gasket corrosion. Historically, traditional inspection programs have relied on visual inspection methods to identify and determine corrosion damage to the raised face of the flange. This procedure is costly and involves breaking and remaking flanges that in some cases may not be necessary.
MISTRAS has developed a proven ultrasonic procedure to inspect flange faces in HF Alky service using phased array technology, offering the ability to detect corrosion damage in-situ and on-stream, providing critical data for system integrity while eliminating manpower and safety issues. Our HF flange face inspection technique has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective inspection tool in the prevention of flanged joint failure brought on by damage to the sealing surface, all with no need to break the flange.
The MISTRAS flange face inspection technique examines the entire width of the flange raised face (sealing surface) and has the ability to determine corrosion presence, maximum material loss in terms of depth and any progression of existing corrosion across the sealing surface. It also identifies at-risk flanges and eliminates safety issues regarding “open flange” conditions.
While corrosion detection is an obviously important part of the inspection, the ability to size the depth of corrosion across the flange raised face is the single most critical component of the evaluation. MISTRAS’ R&D teams performed extensive laboratory trial testing to meet a predetermined tolerance value of 0.030 of an inch, yielding an accuracy percentage along the axial plane of the flange raised face.
After inspections are completed, our highly-trained technicians record, analyze, and pictorially-present field inspection data in a final report. Data analysis and final reports may include Word, Excel, and AutoCAD drawings, and are combined into one document for final submittal.
Benefits of MISTRAS approach to HF Alky Flange Face Inspection include:
- provides a non-intrusive examination process
- may be carried out in-situ and on-stream
- helps to eliminate unscheduled downtime
- identifies at-risk flanges
- eliminates need to disassemble flanges for inspection
- eliminates safety issues surrounding ‘open flange’ condition
- assist in compliance with API Recommended Practice 751
Flange Maintenance Services
MISTRAS also provides maintenance & light mechanical services for flanges of all sizes and materials, including:
- Flange Torqueing & Tensioning
- Flange Mapping
- Flange Sealing
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