Stainless Valve Company (Monroe, North Carolina, USA), together with Alexander Thibodeau, Mead and Steve Hogg, has developed an automatic screen changer to remove solids from a flow media down to a certain particle size. When the screen clogs up with particles and the media does not flow anymore the clogged screen is replaced by a clean one without stopping production, just pressing a button.
Big Screen is designed to save time when production would have to be stopped, flanges detached and screens replaced. The actuator moves the screens, simultaneously bringing the one to be exchanged outside the screen body and the clean one into the flow area. While the one screen is outside the body it can be cleaned and prepared for the next exchange.
An example for the application of such a screen is the vent on the steaming vessel. In this case Big Screen features for example a screen pattern of 1/4â? diameter holes on a 1/2â? square centerlines, the cut rings, which shear the protruding fibres from the screen surface, glass filled PTFE screen guides, expanded PTFE rope packing, and tandem actuators with 8000 lbs. of force for a 18â? screen.
