Chesterfield Special Cylinders
Market leading special cylinder manufacturer Chesterfield Special Cylinders has a world renowned reputation for the design and manufacture of special cylinders. Operating as a subsidiary of Pressure Technologies plc in the Ultra-large cylinder class they are one of the European leaders in this market.
The ultra large cylinders are used predominantly in the following market sectors: Naval Industry; Oil and Gas; Transportation; and Ground Storage. The cylinders are manufactured to stringent internationally recognised standards and design codes and involve third party inspection and approval. Using premium, high-strength chromium molybdenum alloy steel grade, the ultra large pressure vessels are manufactured from hot rolled or forged seamless pipe. The hemispherical ends of the vessels are shaped by the forging process, the vessels are then heat treated and quenched. Chesterfield Special Cylinders has been supplying the UK Royal Navy with their high pressure gas storage since the 1930's on both submarines and surface vessels.
Other Navies from around the world have recognised Chesterfield's wealth of experience in this area. The Naval cylinder applications range from breathing and weapons systems to nuclear reactor valve operating systems. However, to meet the increasing performance specifications whilst also meeting target price of its customers, Chesterfield Special Cylinders has had to consider improving its business practices and has looked to both modelling and simulation to support these market demands and the challenges they present.
Through the implementation of Autodesk Inventor 2010 Professional this has delivered considerable benefits providing state-of-the-art 3D CAD resources for designs of complete pressure systems. To meet the performance assessments Chesterfield Special Cylinders have engaged the Design Modelling and Simulation Centre at NAMTEC to undertake particular cylinder performance assessments using the DMS Centre's extensive portfolio of Advanced Finite Element Analysis CAE tools to verify that their high pressure air cylinders meet customer approvals, including new survivability scenarios.
International Sales Development Manager, Stephen Butler says that "Chesterfield Special Cylinders from early involvement with the DMS Centre and their Advanced CAE software capabilities has underpinned £3M worth of sales orders, contributing significantly to the overall growth of the business since its relocation to Sheffield in June 2005. The CAE analysis performed by NAMTEC provided the opportunity to assess various cylinder designs against the customers specification allowing us to identify and implement new, ‘best-in-class' manufacturing practices".
Whilst Chesterfield Special Cylinders has manufactured special cylinders for decades to demanding standards they continuously have to improve the technology and manufacturing capabilities to meet the needs of their customer base.
As a result of the DMS Centre's design and analysis input Chesterfield have successfully introduced new production practices to outstrip supply quality of its competitors. Alan Harding, Technical Director at CSC adds: "This project has assisted in achieving a sizable amount of turnover and delivered results that provide valuable knowledge to combine with our manufacturing experience to meet increasing customer demands in an evermore price critical environment".
