Thinking on Intelligent Design, Manufacture and Maintenance of Pressure Equipment in China

This paper introduces briefly China’s development plan for intelligent manufacturing, and combining with the present situation of design, manufacture and maintenance of pressure equipment, puts forward the development directions for the digitization, networking and intelligentization of pressure equipment at present and in the next decade from three aspects. The first aspect is digital control of shape and performance of pressure equipment. Taking the furnace tube as an example, the Material Genome technology is recommended for establishing the relationship between the microstructure and macroscopic performance of its material and achieve the target macroscopic performance by the adjustment of composition, phase and microstructure; then the additive manufacturing (3D printing) technology can be used to control the resulting shape of certain special structures so as to achieve the integrated shape and performance and significant improvement of its service life. The second aspect is digitization and network-based interconnection of production factors such as materials, equipment and personnel in the pressure vessel production workshop to realize intelligent manufacturing. Taking the transportable pressure vessel for instance, the real-time identification, diagnosis and control of abnormal conditions can be realized by information and communication technology during the key production processes such as baiting, cutting, forming, welding, heat treatment, and non-destructive testing; and if necessary, the suitable manufacturing resources across different enterprises and regions can be organized to achieve the flexible production and collaborative manufacturing of the components such as heads and flanges, etc. The third aspect is to achieve the real-time online integrity assurance of pressure equipment in process industries (e.g., petrochemical and electric power, etc.) by digitization and networking of risk-based inspection (RBI), fitness-for-service (FFS) assessment technologies and their corresponding database, in combination with real-time monitoring technology based on the characteristic safety parameters. Taking the reactor effluent air cooler (REAC) system as an example, this technology would enable not only the safety warning of critical characteristic parameters, but also the self-limiting and self-prevention of the flow-induced corrosion failure by linking with the distributed control system (DCS).