The Pipe Support Blog

Variable Spring Supports for a Refinery in Texas

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. designed and manufactured variable spring supports for a refinery in Forney, Texas.

The spring supports are made of carbon steel and have a length by casing diameter range from 9-3/16 by 8-5/8 to 53-11/16 by 12 ¾.  In order to insure the quality of the springs, compression tests were used with a load capacity of 21,500 pounds.

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Vertical F-Type Constants for Power Plant

Piping Technology & Products custom designed and manufactured vertical F-type constants for a power plant in Connecticut.

The 100 type F is a vertical constant designed to support piping from below with minimum space usage. The dimensions of the constant are 26-5/8" high, 10" wide, and 17-9/16" long with an operating load of 280 lbs.

This particular F constant, was unusual in that it was furnished with a vertical spring that attaches below the frame of the constant. In addition to a downward travel of 3", the flange table shifts forward at 1-3/8" to minimize axial movement.

A galvanized finish was applied to the constant to prevent corrosion. The constants can be bolted on or welded to the support or steel underneath.

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Variable Springs to Meet Travels Needed to Support Furnace Tubes of a Hydrogen Reformer

Piping Technology & Products, Inc.  specially designed and fabricated hundreds of altered Type A variable spring hangers in order to accommodate the special travel and spring rate needed to support the furnace tubes of a hydrogen reformer in Venezuela. In order to accommodate customer specified travel and spring rate, modified spring coils were required. With a travel of 8 7/8, the variable spring hanger casing lengths were increased from the standard size of 32 inches to over 6 feet long. The calculated spring rate is 79 lb/sq in for an operating load of 2,804 lbs. and installed load of 3,505 lbs. The housings are coated with a heat resistant paint, which protects the spring coils from corrosion and high temperatures of the furnace area.

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Constants For Constricted Areas of a Chemical Processing Plant

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. custom designed and fabricated 200-C type constants to suit constricted areas of a chemical processing plant in Texas.

Short distances between the pipe and the supporting beam necessitated a custom design. Two designs were needed one was for a 230 lb. load with 11"down travel, while the other was for a 260 lb. load with 13-1/2" down travel. The PT&P standard design for these constants has Take-Out values of 19-9/16" and 21-9/16", respectively. However, the available space permitted no more than 9-1/2".

Compare the final design, shown on the left to the standard design, shown on the right. Note that the lower part of the frame has been cut away, permitting the pipe to move nearer to the constants' supporting lugs.

PT&P's system of stock pipe and spring supports, allowed engineers and workers to fabricate these constants within a short amount of time.

Find out more information about constants in our webinar archives!

Special Vertical Type E Constant Spring Supports

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. designed and manufactured special vertical type E constant spring supports for a power plant. These were designed and installed as pairs in a configuration similar to the typical G type constants. The advantage of using a pair of the special E rather than the conventional G type is that the total width is smaller as can be seen in the photo above.

The constants were designed to support loads from 5,730 lbs to 10,690 lbs. They were fabricated from A36 Carbon steel. The dimensions of the individual constants are 60" high, 16 1/2" long, and 14" in wide. The size of the supported pipe determined the width of the assembly. As with all constants built by PT&P, they were tested to verify that standard specifications for variation of load over the full range of travel were met.

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Pipe Shoes with Loads up to 75,000 lb.

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. designed and fabricated several pipe shoes with loads up to 75,000 lbs. respectively, for a 750MW power plant in Alabama.

The shoes are to support the cooling towers' circulatory water system at the power plant. The majority of the shoes were designed for a 60" line and 50,000 lb. load, and the remaining few were designed for a 78" line and 75,000 lbs. of load. After extensive engineering hours and structure analysis, PT&P's engineering department was able to produce a detailed design and 3-D model for the supports that would allow them to run electronic interface checks.

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Sway Braces for Petroleum Company in Louisiana

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. specially designed and fabricated ten sway braces, with total travel distance of 14, for a petroleum company in Louisiana.

The standard PT&P braces have springs that allow 3 of total travel distance. These sway braces were custom designed to provide total travel distance of 5 and 14. The center-to-center dimensions ranged from 92¼" to 115" with internal supports to prevent buckling. The desired spring rates for the sway braces were 450 lb./in. and 1350 lb./in. The custom sway brace assemblies comprised of pipes (for spring housing), springs (sizes dependent on spring rate and total travel) and in some cases, ball joints.

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Pipe Shoes for a 14" Pipe at an LNG Plant

Pipe Shoes For 14" Pipe

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. fabricated cryogenic pipe supports designed for a 14-inch pipe at a LNG plant in Algeria. The pipe operates below minus 50 degrees F, therefore the pipe supports were fabricated from three different materials in order to accommodate the low temperatures. The upper part, which clamps on to the pipe, was fabricated from a stainless steel plate that retains its strength at low temperatures. The middle section is a laminated phenolic block made from layers of wood impregnated under vacuum with a synthetic resin. A crossed orientation of the hard wood fibers is used to provide extra strength. The laminated phenolic block, which is a poor conductor of heat, was bolted to the bottom plate of the galvanized carbon steel.

U-Type and F-Type Constant Spring Supports

F-Type Constants

Piping Technology & Products, Inc. designed, manufactured and delivered a total of 8 constants to a power plant in Mexico. The designs consisted of 4 Horizontal U-Types Upthrust (Figure 1) and 4 Vertical F-Types (Figure 2) that are to support 24-inch diameter pipes. Each consisted of different sizes. The constants are designed for loads of 2,839 lbs. to 8,963 lbs., for Total Travels ranging from 7 to 3 inches. Constants were painted CZ-11 per customer request.

Learn more about constant springs by visiting our webinar archives!

108" I.D. x 144" T-T Vessel

Sweco Fab, Inc., the ASME code fabrication shop for Piping Technology & Products, Inc., specially designed and fabricated a 108" I.D. x 144" T-T vessel for the Texas A&M University. The "Aggie Vessel" will be used for special research project at the university. A 24" T-bolt closure was used for access to the vessel and two stiffner rings were installed to withstand vacuum application. Unique internal design was also applied to facilitate special equipment installation. Helium leak test at 1x10-6 cc/sec will be performed to detect leakage.

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