Flange Guard: What is it?

I stumbled upon flange guards not when I was a process engineer, but rather recently when a practical student mentioned about it few months back. I goggled right away and found the answer. I realized that it is something to do with the joints and threaded fittings in the form of flanges, unions, T joints and elbows, sockets or expansion joints for any piping system.

Then I asked myself why flange guard was not installed in the plant I worked before. It was then that I realized that it is more required for a plant with critical and hazardous chemicals. My previous plant was more on edible oil and maybe that was the reason why I believe there was not flange guard installed.

Anyway let me just share slightly more on what is flange guard.

Flange guard is also known as flange spray shields are used in a range of industries to prevent hazardous spray outs from leaking flange joints and dangerous fluids such as acid, oil or steam. Flange guard cannot contain leak for an indefinite time, but are used to prevent fire and explosion which may cause death and injury.

There are several types of flange guards which are explained below:

·        PTFE Flange Guards

PTFE flange guards are made of multiple layers of Teflon coated fibreglass fabric. Teflon is resistant to most of the chemicals and Fibreglass provides strength to the fabric.

·        Stainless Steel Flange Guards

Stainless steel flange guards are manufactured from SS316 steel. These shields have a steel mesh welded inside. The mesh diffuses the pressure and gives a safe discharge to the leaking fluid. These Flange spray shields are used on high temperature and pressure flange joints.

·        Clear Type Flange Guards

These Flange shields have a transparent central window to provide easy visual inspection of flanges. This helps in easy leak detection without dismantling the shield. The Central window is made from ETFE in the middle which has a high tensile strength and PTFE on the sides.

I hope you are clearer on what flange guard is about. It’s an excellent tool for providing safer working environment and lost prevention. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.