Quality verification of large stainless steel vessels

Abstract

The dairy, meat, wine, brewing, nuclear, space and many other industries use vast numbers of very large thin walled vessels to store and process their products. They have established that, provided the correct grades and finishes of stainless steels are used, and that the manufacturing quality of the vessel is correctly specified and carried out, such vessels should give many years of satisfactory service. These closely controlled process industries often ensure that optimum conditions of plant are maintained by subjecting the plant to very harsh cleaning and sanitising routines. Failure either in the form of product contamination or leakage may be viewed with grave concern, and can be extremely embarrassing and costly. The price of scaffolding, inspection and carrying out minor maintenance on six silos at one food processing plant has recently been put as high as $40,000. However, such cost was considered to be trivial compared with the cost that might later be incurred if the product was to be downgraded due to biological contamination; or if unscheduled plant shutdowns for maintenance were required during peak production times.

Citation

Page, G.G. (1988), "Quality verification of large stainless steel vessels", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 4-7. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb020618