Impressive engineering AMPO

IMPRESSIVE ENGINEERING

A Spanish cooperative, specialising in moulded steel parts casting and the production of industrial valves, is going from strength to strength. Abigail Saltmarsh reports.

ATAMPO the successes are coming thick and fast. Along with the launch of new products and new certifications for product performance are new contracts and projects.

Established in 1964, and part of the MCC cooperative group of companies, AMPO is an internationally renowned foundry, which has gained a reputation for its use of stainless steel materials and high alloys. It also produces industrial valves under the well-known Poyam brand, and supplies a complete range of castings to a wide scope of industries, ranging from the gas, chemical and petrochemical to the hydraulics, heat treatment and naval.

At the foundry

Located in the Basque town of Idiazabal, AMPO is made up of its Engineering, Foundry and Valves divisions. The foundry works together with the research and development team to create new developments and designs.

“This is a key factor in enabling AMPO to control the whole process, from start to finish,” said a spokesman. “Cast materials are produced under strict quality controls at the AMPO foundry. Ongoing control is the key to our quality and success, starting with castings from one of the world’s leading valve foundries, through to a product finished and tested to any specification, all within our own facilities.”

Modern facilities

At the foundry, there is a 5000kg arc furnace, a 5000kg AOD converter furnace and eight induction furnaces with a capacity of 1000 to 3000kg. To be in a position to offer its customers the widest possible range of castings and the best solutions, AMPO has four production lines, each of which uses the most advanced technologies so that it can satisfy all customer requirements.

These include alphaset, shell moulding, replicas and centrifugal castings. “With our modern machining facility we are in a position to supply customers with fully machined castings, thus adding value to the product and shortening final customer delivery times,” he added.

AMPO also has a plant in Houston (USA), where its subsidiary BIC manufactures conduction systems for liquid and gas products.

Innovation and design

At AMPO Engineering there is a focus on process analysis, design and improvement. Work groups are formed in close cooperation with the customer for the purpose of

troubleshooting processes using the tools and means available at AMPO.

In addition to in-house resources, close ties with specialist research centres ensure that analyses are always to the customer’s satisfaction. The combination of the knowhow of plant personnel and of AMPO Engineering leads to truly satisfactory results in process innovative design, development of new solutions and engineering support to piping and instrumentation diagrams.

To make easier the components’ installation and to improve process reliability, AMPO Engineering builds subprocesses, mini plants and spools prepared for being installed directly at site. In close cooperation with the customer, plant process is analysed, innovation is introduced and the module is constructed, checked and tested. It is sent ready for installation, avoiding cleaning processes, commissioning tests and failure possibilities.

Advanced technologies

AMPO Valves focuses on internal weld overlay processes. It looks for cost-saving alternatives for solid rare material requirements. “Our advanced technologies and high productivity allow AMPO Valves to produce the entire range of weld overlays on any kind of base materials in the shortest turn around

times using rare materials,” he said. “High quality surface coatings of Stellite 6, Ultimet, Nikel, Inconel 625, Incoloy 825, Colmoloy, Cupronikel, and other hardfacing alloys, are assured by the use of state-of-the-art technology such as controlled preheating, automatic plasma arc hard facing equipment and a controlled cooling process.”

For special applications and processes, different coatings and hardenings are applied in sealing and contact areas for anti-corrosion, wear resistance, high temperature resistance, anti-coking and metal dusting resistance etc. These special treatments, such as plasma nitridings, mechanical plating and PVD coatings, are designed specifically for each project in a close cooperation between the technological services and associated research centres.

New certification

In one recent development, the company has announced that its ball valves have received SIL 3 certification under the IEC 61508 international safety standard. “Up to this point, the prior use methodology has been required to demonstrate the valves are ‘proven in use’ for safety applications,” he said.

“In addition to this, SIL 3 is defined as a relative level of risk-reduction provided by a safety function, or to specify a target level of risk reduction. In simple terms, SIL is a measurement of performance required for a safety instrumented function (SIF).”

Having these valves certified for up to SIL 3 safety instrumented functions provide process manufacturers with great flexibility in the selection of final elements for their IEC 61511 safety compliance efforts.

A future in co-operation

AMPO is – and always has been – a cooperative. This means that employees, who have been with the company for more than three years automatically become shareholders.

They have a say in discussions about earnings and profits, which are apportioned according to democratically agreed parameters. Employees also work flexitime, ensuring that objectives are met.

The management find that, as a result of this system, workers are much more involved, better informed and committed to the success of the business. Motivational levels are also high, and the company as a whole benefits.

With so many developments and the company continuing to look for new markets, AMPO is optimistic about the future. Its aims are to be present in all areas of the world and to increase its valve production significantly.

“We want to offer our customers the best possible levels of service. We want to continue to invest in our people and technology and to maintain the very unique way we run AMPO,” he said. n