Applications that require surface treatment need valves that withstand very high levels of chemical attack, elevated temperatures and high levels of abrasion.
SAFI is a brand recognized by many actors using surface treatment processes such as hot or cold pickling like ARCELOR MITTAL, UGINE, AGFA,
FEDERAL MOGUL who have trusted SAFI for decades considering the SAFI product range suitable for their installations.
The SAFI product range is suitable for surface treatment such as :
- Metal Pickling
- Galvanizing
- Photovoltaic panels contruction
- Semi-conductor industry
- Glass manufacturing
- Degreasing
(Non-exhaustive list)
Focus application : Metal Pickling
The metal pickling technique is used in the iron and steel industry. This technique consists of soaking the metal in an acid bath in order to eradicate the surface oxidation layer that originates from the process of working metals at high temperature.
For carbon steel with an alloy content less than or equal to 6% : hydrochloric acid - HCL (10%) or sulfuric acid – H2SO4 (5-15%) are used in the baths. Steels with an alloy content greater than 6%, like stainless steel, must undergo pickling in two stages and different acids are used, such as phosphoric acid - H3PO4, nitric acid - HNO3 and hydrofluoric acid - HF (2-15%). The bath temperature can rise up to 80°C and the pressure up to 3 bar.
The SAFI valves are perfectly suitable to these service conditions and can also naturally resist the abrasion of the process that results from the mixture of the oxidation layer and the acid solution that can erode valves. The thermoplastics used by SAFI resist very well to abrasion as can be seen on the TABER test:
| Materials | Abrasive Disk | Weight Loss (mg/1000 rev.) |
|---|---|---|
| Solef Ⓒ PVDF homopolymers | CS-10 CS-17 |
5-10 7-10 |
| PP (homopolymers) | CS-10 CS-17 |
15-20 18-28 |
| 304 stainless steel | CS-10 | 50 |
| PTFE | CS-10 | 500-1000 |
| Solvay document (SOLEF Design & processing guide Ⓒ, p23) | ||
The PVDF thermoplastic has the best resistance to abrasion, with a material loss of 5mg after abrasion of 1000 revolutions from an abrasive wheel on the tested material. PPH comes in second, in front of stainless steel and PTFE.