Orano who!?!

As an engineering office and expert in sealing applications, Provecta occupies a special position in the scenery. The machining of specific flanges for leak testing is its signboard and more and more companies from domestic and foreign countries are finding their way to Provecta for this.

A few months ago, we were contacted twice from France for the machining of a flanges/sealing hardware.

The first project a set of flanges for nuclear seals, Provecta supplied none other than the giant Orano (Ex Areva). What an honour to be recognised by this leading player in the nuclear industry that specialises in the entire nuclear fuel cycle of Uranium, from mining to recycling. Orano is committed to sustainability and innovation in this powerful niche and operates globally from its headquarters in France.

Machining flanges is our craftsmanship

In parallel, an R&D centre ordered a series of 20+ flanges for a comprehensive gastest programme on composite tubes. The programme included various pressure tests up to a maximum of 1000 bar and further maps ageing phases of the samples. The flanges, which we produced entirely on our CNC machines, are used to apply watertight bushings for passing instrumentation in the test setup (strain gauges, thermocouples,…).

Overview of the key features

Flange 1

  • Material stainless steel SS316L
  • Overall diameter just below 350m
  • Double dovetail groove with specific roughness
  • Holes for a thermocouple 25D
  • Connections (G1/8 ) for helium and vacuum depths 12D to 30D
  • Milled grooves for better evacuation during the leak test
  • Additional holes around the flange for fitting handles

Flange 2

  • Material stainless steel SS316L
  • 1/8NPT thread 
  • 7/16-20 UNF thread 
  • Bore diameter 2.7mm 20D
  • Bore diameter 1.5mm 10D
  • Radial  O-ring groove tolerated H9
  • Semi-open sealing groove (P groove)

Flange 3

  • Material Duplex 1.4462
  • 7/16-20 UNF thread
  • 1-1/8 – 12 UNF thread 
  • Bore diameter 2.7mm 20D
  • Bore diameter 1.5mm 10D
  • Radial O-ring groove tolerated on H8
  • Semi-open sealing groove (P groove)