corrugated metal hose

Can I Afford to Upgrade my Piping System Now?

With everything going on in the world right now a lot of companies are prioritizing finding ways to reduce costs. Budgets are being cut, projects are getting canceled, and everyone is trying to find ways to do more with less. Given this context, it’s possible that piping system upgrades and routine maintenance may be overlooked depending on the extent of other repairs and maintenance needed in a facility. However, neglecting a piping system update can carry risks of failure and corresponding downtime, which can ultimately cost a facility. Luckily, there are a few ways to upgrade a piping system that can save time and labor and result in an overall gain for the customer. Let’s take a look at some of the options available when updating a piping system and how they can help a facility successfully balance budget and performance.

That’s a Tricky Question…

A question we are frequently asked by our customers is “Can I use a metal hose for food-related applications?” It’s a simple question, but the answer isn’t always so simple.

The quick answer is no, metal hose generally cannot be used for the transfer of food-grade materials. This has nothing to do with the capabilities of the manufacturer or the quality of materials used in the hose. On the contrary, while the steel used may indeed be “food-grade,” the corrugations in the hose can potentially trap food media and make it difficult to clean the hose to the proper standard. Instead, you typically see PTFE hoses in these types of applications. The only exception to this would be if the media is at a temperature high enough to kill off any bacteria, which may allow for a metal hose to be used in some cases.

However, just because metal hose generally cannot be used to transfer food-grade materials does not mean that there are not applications for metal hose elsewhere in production! You just have to know where to look for them…

Metal Hose for Food Industry Applications

Clean in Place Systems

A key component of food production that requires the use of metal hose is clean-in-place (CIP) systems. Clean-in-place systems serve as a way to clean and sanitize the internal surface of a piping system as part of the routine cleaning of the production line or when production is being changed over to a different product. These systems utilize steam and chemicals (such as sodium hydroxide) to clean the piping system, which can be hard on any non-metal hoses that are used in the system. Instead, non-metal hoses are removed to be cleaned separately and metal hoses are installed in their place during the cleaning process. These metal hoses are better suited to handle the high heat and caustic cleaning solution running through the system, making metal hose an optimal solution for this application.

In modern steelmaking, heat rules. Heat changes coal into coke, melts ore into liquid iron, and converts iron into steel. All of these products must be transported from one process to the next, and hydraulic power units (HPUs) are employed to provide that power. Hydraulic hoses provide flexible connections between the HPUs and the equipment they power, and this is where problems can arise. Heat and hydraulics do not mix, and hydraulic power systems can experience premature hose failures unless a proactive approach is taken.

Most steel is made using one of two processes. The first is an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), which uses scrap steel as the main feedstock. The scrap is charged into the furnace, where huge electrodes create an arc of electricity that melts the charge so it can then be refined and processed into the desired alloy. The second process is an integrated mill, where Blast Furnaces supply liquid iron to a Basic

Addressing New Issues

Steel mill operators don’t like to have downtime problems, in fact they can’t afford to.  They want to run as much as possible, and as efficiently as possible.  Production equals dollars.  As problems pop up that cause unplanned downtime or upset production (and subsequently get addressed) over the years, they’ve driven the industry to continue to change and evolve as a whole.  So the mills of today don’t have the same issues that mills did in the past.  You can’t as easily say “Hey, we saw this exact same problem up the street on their furnace!” the way you may have been able to 50 years ago.

That doesn’t mean that mills still don’t run into issues, they just tend to be a bit more personalized. And when you have a unique issue, you tend to get a unique solution.  A mill will do its best to solve its own problems, yet each mill has their own idiosyncrasies.  When

Gallagher Fluid Seals is a distributor of Hose Master corrugated metal hose and expansion joints.  With the largest in-house fabrication footprint in the U.S. of any metal hose manufacturer (350,000 square feet of manufacturing space) and 80+ ASME IX Certified welders on staff,  Hose Master delivers the highest quality products for the most demanding applications.

The following article can be found on Hose Master's Insights Blog.

Should I Install a PTFE Liner Inside a Corrugated Metal Hose?

by Frank Caprio, Dean of Hose Master University

We get various requests from our customers for non-traditional hose assembly constructions that they believe will help them solve tough application problems. Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of these, and some are pretty inventive, even if they’re not the best solution. Some other proposed solutions … not so good!

One especially challenging application that can drive people to consider specialized solutions is when the hose is exposed to corrosive media or environments. Typically, corrosion can be avoided simply by selecting an alloy that is resistant to chemical attack. However, certain refinery applications (such as those found in Cokers or FCCUs) entail operating conditions where some manufacturers recommend a special corrugated metal hose assembly which has been fitted with a liner made from smooth PTFE tubing. While this special construction sounds good in theory, it can create more problems than it solves. Let’s take a closer look at PTFE-lined corrugated hoses.