Flexing The Joints

摘要

A long-term side-by-side comparison at Merom Generation Station revealed 43 percent lower life-cycle costs with a patented fabric expansion joint material compared to a generic fluoroplastic product. Hoosier Energy's Merom Generating Station, one of the first power plants to install flue gas desulfurization units in the early 1980s, has accumulated many years of experience with two fluoroplastic-based fabric expansion joint materials to assess their relative performance. The results indicate that a patented material from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics provides significant life-cycle benefits despite its initial higher costs. When the Merom FGD units were under construction in the early 1980s, fluoroplastic-based expansion joint products were a new concept. Up to that time, fabric expansion joints for FGD service and similar applications were based on fluoroelastomer materials such as Dupont Viton. Because of relative cost, handling convenience and performance, fluoroplastic quickly became the most commonly specified fabric expansion joint material for FGD and flue gas applications. An example of a fluoroplastic is PTFE, which is also recognized by the brand Dupont Teflon. Merom installed two fluoroplastic-based expansion joint products in various FGD locations: a higher cost product with patented manufacturing technology (DARLYN 1100CB, manufactured by Saint-Gobain) and a lower cost fluoroplastic-based product (referred to as generic PTFE product).