Armatures and Valves

BORTEC HARDENING PROCESS FOR OUTSTANDING CORROSION PROTECTION

In many areas of application in valve technology, high demands are placed on resistance to corrosion. For this reason, stainless steel is used very frequently in valve technology. However, many of the materials applied, such as 1.4301, have only moderate properties in terms of hardness and the resulting characteristics with regard to protection against abrasion, erosion, cavitation and cold welding. One way to compensate for these disadvantages of the materials used, without losing corrosion protection, is to use the BorTec hardening processes BORINOX®, BOROCOAT® and NICKELCOAT®. They are suitable for hardening valves and valve parts without affecting the corrosion resistance. In the following, we present some products which can be made more durable and reliable by refinement.

Stainless steel hardening for valve components

Valves and fittings are essential products in valve construction that frequently suffer from wear. Inlet and outlet valves are exposed to high mechanical stresses, often combined with additional thermal and chemical stress. Depending on the application, the demands on corrosion protection are particularly high.
Valve technology used at sea must also be able to withstand chloride-induced attacks, which are unavoidable in sea air. The chloride ions contained in seawater attack the passive layers of the steel and promote corrosion processes. In addition to the high demands on corrosion stability, cavitation phenomena are often a cause of wear in valves. Here, hardening of the stainless steel used helps to prevent damage caused by collapsing steam bubbles.
Other products that are frequently hardened using the BorTec process include valve balls, metallic seals and sliding couples, slide plates, pump housings, rotors, stators and actuators. All products are particularly susceptible to abrasion wear, cavitation and cold welding due to the low hardness of the stainless steels used.