Safurex® thin foils for Pressure, Level and Flow transmiters
In the urea plant carbamate corrosive environments are commonly found in the HP synthesis, MP and LP sections. Carbamate, especially in the HP synthesis section, is very corrosive, even for stainless steels.
For delicate diaphragms used for pressure and differential pressure measurements this proves to be an even bigger challenge as there is (almost) no corrosion allowance, the diaphragm’s thickness is somewhere near to 100 µm (0.1 mm/0.004 inch). The conditions are even worse for diaphragms in the vapor phase of such sections due to a phenomena called condensation corrosion.
Therefor the choice of material, the processing (shaping, welding) of such diaphragms and the application is particularly important.
The repair/replacement of a failed diaphragm type pressure or differential pressure instrument usually requires the shutdown of the process or the process unit. This leads to expensive downtime, capacity turn down or even potentially unsafe operations.
About Alex Scheerder
Mr. Alex Scheerder holds a Master’s in Science degree in Applied Physics from the Technical University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
He started his professional career in 1986 as a Research Associate at the NDT (Non Destructive Testing) Department of DSM Research in the Netherlands, involved in research and development of NDT- inspection techniques for (petro)-chemical installations (static equipment) at DSM.
From 1992 Mr. Scheerder headed the NDT Department of DSM Engineering-Stamicarbon, responsible for non-destructive inspections in all chemical process installations of DSM and Stamicarbon Urea Plants worldwide.
In 2001 he joined Stamicarbon as a Mechanical Lead Engineer within the Services Department and later on within the Urea Technology Department, responsible for the mechanical expertise field of the Stamicarbon Urea process. He worked on the development and successful introduction of the Safurex® duplex stainless steel in Stamicarbon urea plants. In 2007 he became head of the Mechanical Engineering & Inspection Department, delivering services with respect to design and engineering of urea equipment (PDP packages), in-service corrosion inspections and QA/QC during manufacturing of critical HP urea equipment. In 2014 Mr. Scheerder became the Inspections & Materials Engineering Head of Department within Stamicarbon and worked on further developments on the Safurex® material such as Safurex STAR and DEGREE. Since mid of 2019 Mr. Scheerder holds the position of Principal Engineer within Stamicarbon.
