
As industry leaders in the design and manufacture of critical oil and
gas valves for both surface and subsea
applications, Newcastle based
BEL Valves concentrate their
energies on serving evolving
markets that demand the very
highest quality and reliability.
The company have in the region of
50,000 valves installed across the
globe, some of which operate in the
most inhospitable environments on
the planet, often in ultra-deep
waters of up to 10,000 feet and
under high pressures as well as
extremes of temperature.
With valve sizes ranging up to 48" in
diameter and tolerances typically
less than one micron, ultra precision
machining is of the utmost
importance, so when BEL Valves
needed to upgrade the cutting operation during the production of their 24" diameter split gate 4A
topside through-conduit valves, they naturally turned to Prosaw to provide
the solution.
Although the existing process utilised
a vertical bandsaw, it was very
wasteful of material, typically
deviating from its true path by up to
1/2" on either side of the blade,
requiring a considerable amount of
post cutting additional machining in
order to form a true surface.
Prosaw's response was to specify a
Danobat VL vertical bandsaw, which
has drastically reduced the cutting
time for this product from 18 hours to
just 6 hours, whilst simultaneously
reducing waste material due to the
appreciably more accurate cutting
path, amounting to cost savings in the region of £1,500 for each valve.
Additionally, further significant cost savings have been achieved by the
use of a new type of carbide saw
blade, that has a life of more than 50
times that of the previous machine.
Commented Shop Manager, Adam
Leggett, "We have been very
impressed by this new Danobat machine. It is far more accurate and
much faster compared with our
previous system, and has created
huge cost savings. It has also been
responsible for relieving bottlenecks
in production, causing work to flow
more smoothly through the
workshop."
Adding, " Prosaw have been with us
every step of the way with this
project, giving us excellent service
and full sales and technical support
which has assisted us greatly in
bringing this product along."