The British industrial group IMI has installed eleven additively manufactured valve trims in a Chinese power plant in order to improve the efficiency and reliability of the plant. The previously installed components suffered from heavy wear due to erosion and leaks as a result of insufficient pressure reduction. The new, metal-based valves with ABJ seals were specifically adapted to the respective housing conditions and, according to IMI, manufactured faster and more cost-effectively than conventional spare parts.
The company’s own Retrofit3D process was used for this. This concept aims to upgrade existing control valves with customized spare parts without having to replace the entire valve system. It is based on so-called DRAG technology, in which the pressure is gradually reduced in several small, rectangular channels. This allows the number of pressure reduction stages to be quadrupled, resulting in more precise control and less stress on the components.
In addition, a soft Teflon seal in wave form with an integrated metal spring ensures a high level of tightness. According to the manufacturer, this achieves leakage class VI, which is designed for applications with particularly high sealing requirements. The modular design of the Retrofit3D components allows retrofitting even if the original design did not include multi-stage disk packs.
In addition to technical advantages, IMI also refers to ecological aspects. A life cycle analysis by the consulting firm Ricardo shows that the ecological footprint can be reduced by up to 96% in some cases through the use of additive manufacturing.
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