Active Red Top

Provides Early Warning Detection of Inner Ply or Outer Ply Leakage

Active Red Top

Red Top pops up if vacuum is broken anywhere. It registers a leak in the inner ply, outer ply or at the bellows attachment weld.

Standard Features:

a) Seal steps cover attachment welds.
b) Outer ply is fi tted with an “Active” Red Top that immediately registers leakage of the outer ply or the bellows attachment weld.
c) Each ply is designed for the full system pressure and temperature.
d) Bellows are baked out during manufacture to prevent loss of vacuum from volatiles trapped between plies. This prevents false readings.
e) Flow test port to guarantee bellows is ply testable.

Benefits:

1. Early warning leak detection.
2. Two bellows allow for 100% redundancy.
3. System can function while a convenient fi x can be arranged.
4. Minimizes potential downtime in high risk service, where bellows failure could cause an outage (FCCU, turbine crossovers).

Senior Flexonics Pathway’s Red Top early warning indicator is mounted directly on a two-ply testable bellows. Each ply is designed for the full system pressure and temperature. The two bellows plies provide 100% redundancy.

In the “Active” Red Top design with seal strips, a vacuum is created in the space between the plies and inside the Red Top. This lowers the red post from view. After sealing the vacuum, the expansion joint is installed in a piping run. If a crack penetrates either ply or the attachment weld during operation, the vacuum is broken and the red post pops up into view. It can easily be seen from 50 feet away during a routine piping inspection.

The “Actve” Red Top with seal strips should be used for the most hazardous or high risk applications. The Red Top minimizes potential downtime in high risk service where a bellows failure could cause an unscheduled outage.

Patent No. 4511162