Pressure vessel fabrication – materials and techniques

Pressure vessels are important components in power generation, chemical and petrochemical industries. Fabrication of pressure vessels requires an overall manufacturing capacity which includes various techniques. Advances in these techniques have made fabrication of pressure vessels possible with high efficiency and high quality. Rapid development in thick section pressure vessel fabrication has taken place in China since the early 1980s. Typical products include, for example, reactor vessels, ammonia synthetic converters and hydrogenation reactors. In the present paper, advances in pressure vessel fabrication techniques in China are addressed. The processes used in the fabrication, such as welding, cladding, post–weld heat treatment, and non–destructive testing are discussed. The structures and characteristics of the pressure vessels are described. Furthermore, fabrication flow charts for typical products are presented.