Hi Craig,
It is a long story. The problem will not go away. China foundries still make flanges for all the worlds’ consumers. The spin that is put on the tale these daze is "if the end user (really the "jobber" or "broker" who will peddle them to the construction companies or the plant owners) specifies that the flanges are to conform to B16.5, we will make them in accordance with the required Standard".
What that leaves one to believe is that there is still a market for substandard flanges and that market is being addressed by various foundries, some of which are in China and some of which are in other places. These substandard flanges are actually in demand (due to their cheaper price) in some parts of the world. These flanges are out there and let the buyer beware. The problem is in identification.
A well known regulatory organization recently did some fabrication welding of flanges to piping and found that with normal weld heating the substandard flanges could be identified by the great amount of deformation and blistering. They cut some flanges apart and found that in some cases the s**** metal was not completely fused before it was forged. Some companies (who work with pressurized gasses) that have been "burned" by substandard flanges are demanding hardness testing and UT examination for 100 percent of the flanges that they place into their piping systems before the flanges are installed.
Other than that though, everything is fine.
Do you believe the COADE censor objected to the word "scr*p"??? That is because John Luf will not watch his language when he posts here. Oh well, I stand chastised by the censor.
Regards, John.
_________________________
John Breen
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