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Expansion Joints: Metal Bellows vs.
Fabric / Composite Belts
Depending on the specific nature
of your application, the best balance between cost, load
tolerance and vibration isolation
may be found in either a custom designed FlexCom metallic steel
bellows or a fabric or composite expansion joint. Fundamentally
different designs, each expansion joint type has unique
advantages, disadvantages and design properties that can make
either an ideal solution for a challenging industrial
application.
A fabric expansion joint is an ideal solution for gas
transfer applications that require low pressure tolerance
(5-7psi), moderate heat tolerance (up to 1000°F) and minimal
movement compensation and particulate resistance. Lightweight
and economical, our custom fabric joints are made from
our highly resilient
ChemShieldTM and
FlexLamTM
PTFE fabrics and are designed to be easily mounted directly
to a duct flange via steel backing bars and rings.
Composite
flat belts
integrate ceramic insulation, abrasion resistant silica and our
trademark ChemShield PTFE-coated fiberglass cloth to form an
efficient joint solution for low pressure gas transfer
applications that require more movement compensation than a
basic fabric joint can provide. These belts are designed to
tolerate substantially higher heat stresses (up to 2200°F) and
slightly higher pressure loads (up to 10psi) than single fabric
joints.
Typical applications for fabric and composite expansion
joints include cement kilns, power plants, boilers and
pollution/waste management systems and other high temperature,
low pressure gas transfer applications.
For applications that require very high heat and pressure
tolerances, or that will require the transfer of liquids through
the joint and surrounding piping, FlexCom offers a complete
selection of custom metal bellows designs. Typical metal
bellows applications include ....
A
metal bellows - also called a
metallic expansion joint
- is made entirely of steel, delivering a very high degree of
tolerance to challenging heat and pressure loads while still
providing a fair degree of movement compensation and
vibration isolation. While the
stiffness of steel makes a metal bellows much less
flexible than a fabric or composite joint, FlexCom
custom
metal expansion joint designs provide an excellent degree of
movement compensation while
still reliably offering very high tolerance of heat and pressure
loads.
Learn more about the
load stresses faced every day by FlexCom
metal expansion joints.
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