There Is an Engineering Reason (1945)

[Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] This is a story of steam. Steam that first intrigued the mind of James Watt as he watched the bobbing lid of his mother's tea kettle. Steam that since then, through the imagination and engineering skill of many men, has come to dominate the economy of the age in which we live. Great utilities are the personification of the mighty power packed in steam in one central station alone. Force enough to supply the energy required to light and power a whole city area. This giant turbine, for instance, is the largest single shaft turbine in the world. In the hall of turbines at Philadelphia Electric's Mammoth Richmond station, in huge processing plants, steam supplies the heat to make our nation's chemicals, refine our petroleum, process our textiles, paper, rubber, food, and countless other essentials. Here at the Sun Oil Company's Marcus Hook refinery, where the greatest advancements in the manufacturer of high octane gasoline have been made, steam plays its vital part. [Music] And how would you like to be janitor to 40,000 people in such amazing hearts burrow of the Bronx are central heating problems that require the best in steam engineering talent. Yes, steam is comfort to millions in apartment houses, hotels, hospitals, universities, institutions, and other public buildings. Steam is power. Steam is processing heat. Steam is comfort. Steam is life to America. and orchids to the designing and operating engineers whose painstaking skill, research, and practical experience have been determinately applied to carry steam's usefulness, efficiency, and economy ever forward. Because modern steam generation, transmission, and application depend not alone upon the efficiency of major equipment employed, but upon almost countless auxiliaries that must contribute their share to overall economy and dependability. The Arnold Wearing Company set out about 40 years ago to develop one after another improved steam devices. A new business plunging head over heels into a new industry. This company made one pledge to itself to offer only equipment for which there was a definite and unique engineering reason for superiority. That is why the products of this company are some of the really big little things in steam engineering today. Recently I had the opportunity of seeing an exhibit of some of these products and a very interesting demonstration of their basic principles, the reasons for their preference in a large majority of our nation's industries. I was fascinated, as I know you will be, by the very evident concentration of so much painstaking mechanical and metallurgical research and manufacturing ingenuity in products we too often just take for granted. [Music] Mud, scale and dirt to clog, score wear and cause leakage. through the boiler blowown valves of a generation ago were the reasons for the seatless blowoff valve, the first Yarway product. Because its sliding plunger design overcame all of the difficulties presented by conventional seating valves like this one, it became famous, has been adopted by more than 12,000 plants. Today, whenever high concentrations are experienced, especially in industrial process work requiring large amounts of makeup water, the seatless type of valve solves a vital problem. Prevent such troublesome cases of scoring and erosion of the seat and disc as this one. In addition, the positive ceiling features of this valve have made it the choice of plants of all types. Here is a Yway seatless tandem valve with the angle valve sectioned to show its design and operating principles. Note the straight through flow through matching ports in follower gland and hollow plunger. No place here for dirt to collect, no hindrance to flow to cause cutting or wire drawing. The seat cannot leak because there is no seat. Note also the annular space around the plunger, which makes the plunger pressure balanced at all times for easy [Music] operation. Down goes the plunger, literally shearing off the flow as the valve closes. This plunger is made of nitralloy with a brell hardness of about 1,100. The packing rings are of special composition with stainless steel laminations, a combination to take what comes in the hardest service a valve can encounter. That final tug on the hand wheel means something, too, for that automatically seals the valve drop tight. Here's how. The shoulder on the plunger contacts the upper follower gland and forces it down into the body, compressing the upper and lower packing rings to make a perfect seal with the plunger. And these yolk springs maintain uniform pressure on packing at all other times. Yes, there's a reason for the airway seatless valve that is reflected in service records 15, 20, and 25 years old. These valves in the typical modern power plant of Henry Don and Sons Incorporated are mere babes in point of service. In their fifth year, they boast of never a minute's trouble, of no repairs or repacking since their installation. There are 32 Yarway seatless tandem valves on these three 600lb boilers, generating up to 270,000 lb of steam per hour. Some of these valves have been blown down more than 4,000 times. But what about the higher pressures in use today? What has valve engineering developed to hold in check the devastating force of steam at 900, 1200, 1500, and even 2500 lb pressure? The answer to that is the Rway unit tandem. This tandem, which utilizes a solid block of forged steel as a common body, combines the famous seatless design with a greatly improved hard seat valve. The hard seat valve, which we see being operated, is the valve nearest the boiler and is used as the blowing valve. Its metaltometal seating is ideal for the high temperatures encountered. The seatless valve is used as the ceiling valve. opened first and closed last. It is never subjected to the full force of the blow and hence it stays drop [Music] tight. A good example of the stuff that has gone into this valve to make it the toughest of all tandemss is the stelliting of the hard seat valve seat and disc. This delight, one of the hardest metals known to science, provides wearing surfaces at these vital points that are almost indestructible. Such records as more than 3,000 blows at 1300 lb pressure without repair or replacement of a single part have made the unit tandem the outstanding preference of high-pressure plants from coast to coast. Here at the Philadelphia Electric Company School station, important part of a power network that employs hundreds of yardway blowoff valves, we see a typical installation of unit tandemss. But what are some more of those big little things in steam engineering? Those proverbial nails for the lack of which the battle of steam progress might have been lost. The greatest concern of every steam plant operator is his boiler water level. For in a few minutes of relaxed vigilance, his boilers can be wrecked. A major investment lost. For this reason, no protective device giving warning of dangerous water levels can be too positive or too foolproof. The high low alarm water column employing trouble-free solid weights and operating on the displacement principle is Yarway's answer to this problem. Down goes the water level in the gauge to a point where the lower of the two balanced weights no longer is submerged. Its added effective weight instantly operates the sensitive mechanism. Balanced on knife edges like a fine scale and the steam whistle blows. Similarly, on high water, submerging both weights disturbs their balance again and the whistle blows. And here we see the Yway water column on the job at a large paper and fiber mill where heavy drains on the boiler for processed steam requirements keep the operator busy. Yourway water columns and gauges are made for pressures up to 1350 lb. This rugged 900lb column with high low alarm mechanism and staggered flat glass steel insert gauge is typical of many installations among high-pressure utility and industrial plants. And here is away product that puts water level indication right in front of your eyes on a brilliantly lighted scale. A remote indicator that can be located on instrument panel or at any other desired eye level point regardless of boiler location. An instrument that is operated literally by the boiler water itself. As dependable as the water level gauge and 10 times as easy to read. Watch this transparent plastic demonstration model and see the simple operating principle revealed. I'll wager you will wonder, as I did, why no one ever thought of it before. But like the safety pen, great inventions are not necessarily the most complicated, but more often the simplest answer to an age-old problem. Whether it's holding up three cornered pants or a boiler's water level. This neoprene diaphragm in the pressure side of the instrument is moved by the difference in weight of two columns of water at the same boiler pressure opposing each other on opposite sides of the diaphragm. One column of water is of constant height and the other varies with the water level in the boiler drum. Now looking at the other side of the mechanism, the diaphragm moves a powerful permanent magnet which transmits its motion to a rotating spiral armature inside a non-ferris thimble-shaped tube extending into the pressure side of the instrument. This magnetic transmission permits the pressure side of the instrument to be completely separated and sealed off from the indicating mechanism at atmosphere, eliminating stuffing boxes with their resultant friction, lag, and inaccuracy in instrument operation. The spiral armature of course transmits its motion to the indicator pointer to show the true liquid level instantly and at all times. This typical installation here at Gilbert Station of the Metropolitan Edison Company, one of the highest pressure utility stations in the world, shows how boiler water levels high above are brought down for convenient, accurate checking on the same panel with other operating instruments. What's this? Still another product of Yway ingenuity in solving troublesome steam equipment problems. It's the gunpacked expansion joint. And what a boon to the steamline maintenance man. It eliminates one of the hardest, hottest, dirtiest jobs there is. Repacking the conventional slip type expansion joint. It eliminates those costly shutdowns too when repacking must be done because packing can be added to this joint while under full steam pressure. Let's see how it's done. A special plastic packing is used formed into slugs to fit into the cylinders of pressure guns. By simply turning down the plungers in these guns, the packing is forced into the stuffing box to replenish and rejuvenate the old packing. Looking at this partly assembled joint, the little veins you see deflecting the flow of packing serve a double purpose. To distribute the packing evenly between guns and to prevent back pressure through the guns. Gunpacked expansion joints like this one have been in continuous service for as long as 8 years without need of removing old packing. This 24-in joint is in service on a 250lb steam main at the New York Hospital Association where six enormous buildings are heated and powered from one central source producing up to 2600,000 lb of steam per day. Yes, Yway built a better glandpacked expansion joint for years before the gunpacked feature was developed. And many installations like this one bear testimony to their reliability. But speaking of big little things, here is a Yway product that boasts of its smallness and its ability to lick one of the biggest problems steam users face today. It's the impulse steam trap. A fraction of the size of other type traps. There are no floats, levers, buckets, bellows, or diaphragms in this novel design. Nothing but this simple valve. To get equipment hotter sooner and to keep it at maximum temperature, this little valve literally obeys that impulse. It opens wide like this on heavy condensate loads and discharges water and air continuously. Then when equipment has been brought up to temperature, it settles down to its job of discharging intermittently like this as condensate collects to keep lines clear and heat at maximum. Why does it operate like this, you ask? Well, frankly, to go into the complicated thermodynamics of this unique trap, I'd have to go back to school again for a considerable brushup course. But Yway Engineers did give me a simple layman's explanation. When cool condensate is flowing through the trap, it lifts and holds the valve open until discharged. However, when the condensate reaches near steam temperature and flashes into vapor as it flows through the trap, this vapor expansion produces pressure in the control chamber above the valve, forcing it to close and remain closed. used on almost every type of equipment. In a few years, more than 350,000 Yway impulse traps have gone to work to increase heating efficiency and reduce steam trap trouble and expense. In my travels through a wide variety of industrial plants, it seems I am always running across these little redheaded sentinels standing guard on the productive capacity of some dryer, cooker, vulcanizer, ironer, heater, still or some other vital equipment. Here at the Great Lee Tire and Rubber Company plant, for instance, little impulse traps keep these Mammoth Automobile inner tube vulcanizers hot on the job. Draining each piece of equipment individually, these 26 1-in impulse traps are located high in the ceiling on the floor below. And watch this, an impulse trap that literally rides to work. Installed in the drain lines of the steam heated platens of these big hydraulic presses molding mechanical rubber goods at the leaf plant. It travels up and down with the press keeping platens free from condensate and at top temperature at all times. Can you imagine any other type trap than the small lightweight straight through flow impulse trap in a service like this? These stainless steel kettles at the Francis C. Stokes company canery at Vincent Town, heart of the New Jersey tomato country, are heated by means of large copper steam coils located in the bottom of each kettle. Think of heating 3,200 gallons of tomato juice from 70 to 210° in 7 minutes flat. That's the job these kettles accomplish. The impulse traps on the floor below, one 2-in trap to each kettle, have kept production at peak performance during the past four canning seasons. They replaced other traps unsuited for this continuous cooking work because, as you and I know, a ripe tomato can't wait. But let's get away from here. It's making me as thirsty as these little Yway traps seem to be. Let's see what this giant drier at the famous Scott Paper Company plant is all about. You guessed it, those impulse traps are here again. Once more, they are behind the scenes, out of sight, but very much in evidence in the production picture, keeping steam headers clear to keep drier rolls [Music] hot. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Here at Continental Mills, where pure virgin wool is knitted for some of the leading clothing manufacturers, are still other typical impulse trap applications, from steam separators to raw stalk and cloth dryers to steamers and nappers. For instance, the six heating coils of this continuous dryer that handles cloth by the mile are drained by two 1 and a/4 in impulse traps handling the condensate from 48,000 lb of steam per day right in their stride. And here is one of those interesting machines that raised the nap on the wool fabric to make it feel as soft and warm as a friendly kitten. The steam heated rolls over which the fabric passes on all of these machines are Yarweight trap equipped. Selected because they were the smallest, lightest weight, easiest installed and most efficient traps that could be purchased for the job. Rubber, paper, food, textiles. Yes, every principal process industry has found the Yway impulse trap and natural for their needs. Not to forget one of the most important industries of all, petroleum. Here at the Sun Oil Company's Marcus Hook refinery, I can really feel at home. And so can those little impulse traps, for there are literally hundreds of them throughout this great modern refinery. For instance, practically every meter box, and they are legion in this extensive refinery, is Yway Trap equipped. And in this complicated looking Christmas tree of piping, so typical in refinery work, we see again the everpresent Yway trap. This time serving big stabilizer units. This may look like sending a boy to do a man's work. But take my word for it. This little trap is every inch of man when it comes to keeping lines like this free from condensate and oil lines warm so that a refinery may continue operating when the temperature is zero in the sun. Which reminds me, have you noticed that all of these little impulse traps are out in the open, bare in the breeze, and subject to subfreezing temperatures? So far as I know, no other steam trap can weather such conditions without a liberal overcoat of insulation to prevent freezing up and becoming inoperative. Yay traps are not content to be land lovers either in spite of the great job that they are doing for so many plants ashore. When ships go down to the sea, they go with them for they are naturally good sailors. Literally the trapped with sea legs. They are unaffected by the rolling and pitching of the ship. a fact that among other advantages influenced their selection for almost every American ship launched in our great new merchant marine [Music] program. And since we were talking about the petroleum industry, it is interesting to know that many vital tankers now report discharging their crude oil cargos hours earlier due to the quicker heating Yway traps afford when steam is turned on approaching port. All of the Yway traps you have seen up to this point have been standard bar stock traps for pressure below 600 lb. What has Yway done about trapping really high pressures? Here is the answer. The integral strainer trap for pressures up to,500 lb and temperatures to 900°. Flanges and bolted type bonnet replace screwed connections. The body is forged steel and contains both the Arway fine screen strainer and the impulse trap. Stellite facing is provided on both valve and seat of this trap to ensure long wear under the severe operating conditions imposed by high pressures and temperatures. Here at the Westport station of Baltimore's Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company, we see these integral strainer traps draining the hottest steam lines I have ever run into. 900° F. Hot enough to cook an egg across the room. I'll bet this trap is removing condensate from the main steam header supplying a 52,000 kW condensing type turbine generator operating on 850 lb pressure. And here is a trap on a,250 lb line. pressure so great that steam goes back into water if its temperature falls below 573 degrees. A far cry from James Watt's bobbing tea kettle lid. Yes, this is steam with almost the power of exploding dynamite. This line serves a boiler feed pump turbine in connection with the 25,000 kW superposed turbine generator at Westport. Now that we've seen the proof of the pudding and the service these big little things in steam engineering render to many and varied industries, let's go through the Arway plant and see something of how they are made. Let's start in the steam laboratory. This unique proving ground for basic theories as well as for finished products has had a hand in the development or improvement of every Yarway product. Let's see what is going on today, an average one in this laboratory. First, let's look at the accelerated service test in progress. A great help in finding the weak spot in a product before it is ever offered to the public. This remote liquid level indicator, one of the original stock models, has already operated the equivalent of 50 years of normal boiler room service, and it's still going strong. It must be a veritable one-horse, for it has required no repairs or replacement of a single part. It hasn't even needed recalibration, in fact. And here's a similar test which has just begun on a further improved gunpacked expansion [Music] [Music] joint. In and out, in and out. This joint will move day in and day out under the watchful eyes of engineers. If it meets their expectations, you will hear about it later on. If not, the search will go on. New designs, new materials, new products in neverending succession will meet the acid test of this laboratory. Over here is an impulse steam trap testing apparatus where valuable operating data has been determined. This trap which as I mentioned before employs an entirely new principle of operation was developed entirely in this laboratory from original theory to final product and even today research into the flow characteristics of steam and water goes on to add to man's knowledge in the field of thermodynamics and possibly to lay the foundation for other new and better steam devices to serve industry. Here we see an actual test being run on special laboratory apparatus for further exploratory work on this subject so that flow characteristics may be studied visually. A heavy glass tube is used as the chamber between the two orififices in series. In addition to such original research, there are many routine tests going on continually for this laboratory must prove all materials used in Yarwe products and acts as the control for manufacturing and testing in the plant. Literally the alpha and omega of Yway product development. But let us follow some of these Yarowway products through the plant and take a quick look at the modern methods employed, the painstaking care and double checks involved in assuring that every piece of equipment turned out meets the rigid standard setup for it. This steam trap machining and assembly department is a veritable beehive of activity. And at first glance, it is easy to see why these better steam traps often cost no more to buy than to repair some other type traps. Modern high-speed automatic and semi-automatic production machines almost seem to turn them out while you wait. Those are marine type integral strainer traps being assembled in the foreground. Here we take a closer look at some of the machining operations on these good sailors I told you about a few moments ago. They gleam like pure gold, don't they? And if you take many a marine engineers word for it, they're worth many times their weight in that precious metal for their trouble-free service far from the nearest port. Standard impulse traps are made entirely from bar stock fed into these automatics like meat into a sausage grinder. No wonder these little traps pop out at such an amazing rate as they must to keep ahead of the constantly growing demands of American industry. Here the bonnet opening and the interior of the trap body are precision machined to receive the trend. Maintaining extreme accuracy and uniformity in manufacture makes every part of the impulse trap interchangeable. permits quick replacement of any part worn or damaged with another identical one without removing the trap from the line, whether it is in South Africa or South Brooklyn. And engineers tell me they can carry enough replacement parts in their pocket to keep a plant full of yard weight traps in tip-top shape. Another practice that speeds production and keeps down costs at this model plant is the routine inspection and testing of products as they pass down the production line. In this way, any part or assembly that does not meet rigid Yway specifications is rejected immediately before further man and machine hours are spent on it. Likewise, this policy practically eliminates any chance of a product leaving the plant unless 100% satisfactory in every component. This typical test station happens to be the last in the impulse trap production line. Here the control cylinder is given its factory setting and the final operating check is made. These inspectors work with instruments which give both visual and audible indications of the trap's operation. Say those eerie lights and lightning-like flashes I see coming from that department over there have me intrigued. Let's go over and see what's going on. Oh yes, it's the welding department of course. And I understand these class one welders are some of the most skillful workmen on the east coast in the technique of both torch and electric welding. Here they are working on an order of gunpacked expansion joint bodies. This fellow is welding a reinforcing web into a nitral seatless valve plunger. That flame throws a literal halo of light as he lays in the hot metal to form a bond even stronger than the metal he joins. And watch this. To be sure, he's welding in the stellite face on that hard seat blowoff valve seat we saw a while ago. Putting on that glass hard metal surface just as smoothly and evenly as the cook is a birthday cake. This takes a steady hand and a lot of knowhow, but he makes it look so easy it is hard to believe it. A foot pedal arrangement turns the piece at the command of the welder. But if you think this is tedious work, you should see him do the same job on a little high-pressure impulse trap valve and seat. This is truly a job for some strange combination of welder and jeweler. But these fellows take it in their stride. Well, time is short, so we can't terry here too long. Let's get back to the machine shop and see some other Yarway products rolling off the production line. This tungsten carbide cutting tool is slicing through the seatless valve flange like the devil was after him. Can't you hear that metal screech as it smokes and gives off those heat blue chips? And while we're in the blowoff valve department, here's another interesting sequence of manufacturer. Machining the heads and pressing them into the seatless valves nitrited nitraloy plungers. This assembly will go back to the welding department for the head to be welded into the plunger. Remember the saying, more haste, less speed. Well, like all the high-speed production lines of industry, there always comes a point in the creation of a product where a man's hands and brain must be called upon to assemble it and send it on its way. A few of these men assembled some of the earliest Yway blowoff valves many years ago, and they are still at it with a skill of sight and touch that knows when a product is right, and they know it automatically. [Music] This seatless tandem is just a for low pressure service. It gets only 1,200 lb pressure in its test, but it probably would take 2,000. The two stages of these tests check both the tightness of the valve structure and its ability to shut off tight against twice its rated pressure. [Music] This hydrostatic test imposes 200% of rated steam pressure and the product must stand up drop tight. Here we see a unit tandem blowoff valve for 1350 lb steam service given a good going over with nearly 3,000 lb hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic testing of water columns and gauges and big expansion joints like this one presents quite a problem. But Yway has developed a way to handle them too with speed and dispatch. And so at the end of a busy day, as we pass through the shipping department, working feverishly to get the fruits of this day's work, on their way to the waiting customers, we stop and try to summarize what we have seen, to add it to our mental storehouse of industrial romances. I don't know how it impressed you, but to me, the sincere and honest purpose of this company of engineers and manufacturers in taking the little things in steam engineering and doing them so well that they now loom as big accomplishments is worthy of every plant operator's enthusiastic thanks for a job well done. So, as you watch again the parade of Yway products, remember there's a reason for every one of them that can best be found in the troublesome problems each has solved for many satisfied users. That yard goes on ever matching new problems with new equipment, anticipating constantly changing service conditions and new needs of industry. Now, I hope that Yariway valve equipped Philadelphia Electric Company has plenty of power ready to whisk my train off for New York and home. As I say, so long and thanks for an interesting experience. [Music]