How do you choose the best material for a particular application – in this case industrial plants? A number of factors are considered in the selection process, including environmental factors, stresses and processing.
Many factors, different consequences
All factors mentioned above can actuallhy generate defects in the material. They can also interact with defects already present on the material itself. So what happens in the presence of these defects? The latter may evolve over time in two ways: in a “controlled” way or in a catastrophic way. For this reason, you always have to have a look at the efficiency and good operation of the plants. How should we behave? First of all, the defects must be:
- Detected
- Measured
All components, therefore, will need to be able to sustain process constraints in the first place, in addition to complying with standard requirements and international certifications to meet the reliability parameters of industries (e.g. aviation industry, petrochemical industry, nuclear industry).
The criteria to met for the best choice
Depending on the industrial processes and the types of substances employed, the choice of materials must take into account criteria like the chemical, thermal and mechanical resistance. In addition, it will have to meet the most important security criteria. It is therefore essential that all these are applied to every component in the system from pipes to valves and tanks and fasteners. It may happen that during a production process the different parts will come into contact with different substances (with specific chemical characteristics) with different temperatures.
Industrial plants. How to choose the type of material?
For chemical processes with different types of substances, you will need to choose a material with high corrosion resistance and excellent thermal qualities (e.g. for distillation columns in the chemical industry, the choice will fall on graphite, nickel alloys or steels such as stainless and carbon). Another example is the pharmaceutical industry: here it is common to use PTFE coatings that are able to withstand both severe thermal conditions (to -50° from +250°) and highly corrosive environments. In other cases, the use of metals is preferred. Stainless steel is often used for the construction of reactors, tanks, mixers, columns and pipelines. Titanium, on the other hand, is chosen when an high resistance to metal salts, chlorine, hydroxide and some acids (as nitric and chromic) is needed.
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