Innovation not Imitation - VortexWell
At Okazaki, we deal with clients in some of the most demanding industries on the planet – and sometimes beyond! Within the various industries we work within there are numerous challenges that our clients face, and they look to us to help them overcome these challenges.
One of the big issues that was faced in the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical industries was the problem of Flow Induced Vibrations around a standard Thermowell, which at best made readings difficult and unreliable, but at worst would result in complete failures and system shutdowns.
So, our engineers started at looking into ways we could reduce these vibrations and create a product which would not only be more reliable but also give more accurate results. While researching into possible solutions our team looked through a new guideline which was published by JSME after the failure at the Monju nuclear power plant in Japan. Within this document was mention of several solutions which would prevent the Karman Vortex effect, one of these was the use of ‘Helical Strakes’.
Helical Strakes are not an original idea, they had been used for some time in other applications such as industrial cooling towers and car aerials. But it was our own engineers that discovered that this technology would also work on a Thermowell to reduce vibrations. And after testing numerous configurations of strake height, form, pitch, and width we came up with a final solution that along with our Aerodynamic tip provides industry leading results.
We call this the VortexWell Thermowell and from its development in 2006 can be found in sites all over the world.
But how good is the VortexWell?
Well, it has proven through various testing including CFD analysis to be the most reliable and accurate solution by massively reducing the effects of vibration induced vortices and has overcome the risk of Thermowell failures.
If you would like to learn more about the VortexWell you can look here (web link) or contact our team on 029 2081 4333 or sales@okazaki-mfg.co.uk.