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Why Did Corrosion and Nesting Bees Lead to the Development of Our Protective Sleeve?

Pressure Tech PT-C-180 Protective Sleeve

14 December 2017

Why did corrosion of the regulator’s internal mechanism and nesting bees lead to the development of our PT-C-180 Protective Sleeve?

PT-C-180 Protective Sleeve
By design, a regulator’s bonnet features a ‘key slot’ opening which is necessary for the correct operation of its adjusting mechanism. Consequently, this opening leaves the internal components exposed to external conditions - in certain environments this can be particularly problematic. In offshore and other locations close to the sea, the salt content in the air is high which can potentially result in a crystal build-up on the adjusting screw and accelerate corrosion of the loading spring. In one instance we were also told of bees building a nest inside the regulator!

This meant that we needed to design something that could not only close the slot, but was simple in application, reusable, long-lasting and, ideally, environmentally-friendly.

Our senior design engineer, Karol Wolniewicz, is a keen scuba diver and used his experience to explore the option of utilising a rubber sleeve to create a ‘dry seal’ between the bonnet and band. Initially we experimented with trialling heat shrink tubes and sections of dry suit cuffs to test which gave better results. The heat shrink didn’t perform sufficiently and also wasn’t reusable. The dry suit cuffs, however, seemed perfect for the application.

We successfully located a manufacturer who was able to supply them to our specification, allowing us to offer our PT-C-180 Protective Sleeve to customers across the world and prevent those issues that were first identified in some of the more challenging environments from happening.

Our Protective Sleeve meets all of the criteria we initially set out to achieve; it offers excellent ozone, UV and chemical resistance in a range of temperatures from as low as -50°C right up to +1
10°C, and is 100% recyclable.

Job done!

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