Kerotest Designs Natural Gas Valves with ALGOR FEA

Kerotest engineers Richard Adams and Richard Conley (left to right in upper right inset) modeled the POLYBALL™ valve in Pro/ENGINEER (upper left) and used ALGOR linear static stress analysis results (lower right) to optimize parameters such as the wall thickness, the shape of the transition into the piping and the inside shape of the valve through which the gas flows. A construction worker installs a Kerotest POLYBALL™ valve into a new piping system (lower left, photo courtesy of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division).

PITTSBURGH, PA – January 27, 2004 – ALGOR, Inc., a leading provider of design, analysis and simulation software, announced that Kerotest Manufacturing Corporation has implemented ALGOR FEA software as part of a new, high-technology design and manufacturing process to produce the POLYBALL™ product line of polyethylene valves that outperforms the competition and offers more features at a lower cost while meeting or exceeding industry safety standards. This process is what Kerotest credits with giving this product line an edge in the marketplace.

“We invested in ALGOR FEA software to evaluate our POLYBALL™ valve in more detail than we had with previous products,” said Chief Engineer Richard W. Conley. “We chose ALGOR software because it is easy to learn and use and would be effective in providing significant insight into our design.”

For nearly a century, Kerotest has specialized in manufacturing valves that help companies like New England Gas Company, New York State Electric & Gas Corporation, The Philadelphia Gas Works and Sierra Pacific Power Company distribute natural gas to our homes and businesses. In response to a growing industry trend toward corrosion- and maintenance-free valves, Kerotest set out to design the POLYBALL™ product line that includes ½” to 12” standard- and full-port valves made from medium- and high-density polyethylene.

Kerotest engineers studied a series of valves using linear static stress analysis software from ALGOR. Based on the results, they optimized parameters such as the wall thickness, the shape of the transition into the piping and the inside shape of the valve through which the gas flows to reduce excess material and high stresses. The final design passed extensive prototype tests on the first iteration and the valves are on the market today backed by a 5-year warranty.

Kerotest considers the integration of FEA into their design process to be a success. Not only were they able to produce a high-quality product, but they were able to get answers quickly. “We are designers who are responsible for getting real product development done on time,” said Conley. “We could not spend months learning FEA software and performing analyses. ALGOR has a reputation for being easy to learn and use and, in fact, we were able to get results with it quickly.”

Visit Kerotestnews.ALGOR.com or contact ALGOR to learn more about this project.

About Kerotest Manufacturing Corporation
Kerotest Manufacturing Corporation, an employee-owned company, has been a leading supplier of American-made plastic and steel valves and related equipment to the natural gas distribution market for nearly 100 years. The POLYBALL™ valves are backed by a 5-year warranty and are produced at Kerotest’s Mansura, Louisiana facility, where Kerotest invested $4.5 million USD in equipment to support this new product line.