PMT Portable Coordinate Measurement Machine secures every line of defense of fluid pipes

The key control component of fluid pipe - Valve body

Valves play a vital role in complex fluid piping systems. They are not only the "gatekeepers" of the isolation equipment and piping systems, but also an important tool for regulating the flow, preventing backflow, regulating and discharging pressure.

Whether it is air, water, steam, or corrosive media, slurry, oil, liquid metal and radioactive media, the valve can accurately control the flow of various fluids to ensure the stable operation of the system.

Challenges: Valve leakage and quality control issues

However, the leak-tightness of the valve has always been an important indicator of the function and quality of the pipeline.

Many factors can cause a valve to leak, such as poor machining accuracy, inconsistent sealing face materials, wedge angle mismatch, different width of sealing face, and inadequate wedge disc.

Nowadays, customers in this field do not have the means to control the quality, resulting in liquid leakage due to non-standard dimensions during use. Moreover, some valve bodies are large and difficult to handle, and even easy to bump in the process of handling, resulting in dimensional errors, which has caused certain troubles to customers.

PMT ALPHA E offers an efficient and accurate measurement solution

To solve the problem, the PMT ALPHA E portable arm working with PolyWorks software provides an efficient and accurate measurement solution.

With its high price-performance ratio and reliability, PMT ALPHA E has become the first choice for companies looking for cost-effective solution. Without moving the large body, inspector only needs to fix the measuring arm on an appropriate platform to start measurement. This greatly improves the measurement efficiency.

PolyWorks, the 3D metrology software, allows customers to see the measurement data more intuitively, greatly improving the accuracy and convenience during the whole process. Here's how we operate:

1. Hardware installation

Considering the uncertainties at customer sites, we specially offered a folding adjustable tripod to ensure customers to do their jobs smoothly regardless of different environments.

Additionally, we also trained customers on measurement techniques, for example, doing the alignment in one go so as to avoid unnecessary errors during measurement.

2. Establishment of coordinate system

Define geometric characteristics of the body and use Best-Fit method with three circles on the part to create the coordinate system. This helps to ensure the data accuracy.

3. Actual measurement

Inspect all necessary geometric characteristics of measurement objects to get full values.

Evaluate position: Anchor 12 points on the center of the 12 circles to create a circle and the diameter is measured.

Analyze concentricity through common axes. (Note: We select the maximum value out of the two provided by the common axes.) The precise data provided the basis for customers throughout their quality control process.

4. Data analysis

Export the report that contains all items. A report table lists all the desired information of the measurement object and is very useful to summarize inspection results, such as concentricity and coaxiality. This helped product qualification ratio grew by 30%.

With the continuous advancement of intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0-oriented manufacturing, PMT portable coordinate measurement machine will play a key role in many processes during valve body production including the design and verification, quality control, reverse engineering and the automation and upgrade of production line with its high-precision measurement, flexible working range and powerful data processing capabilities.