Innovations in Pressure Vessel Technology for Industrial Efficiency

All around the world, technology has been advancing at an extraordinary pace, and every industry has been affected–including industries that regularly use pressure vessels. From new ways of designing and manufacturing a custom pressure vessel to the integration of smart technologies and monitoring systems, here are several of the latest trends in pressure vessel technology. 

Simulation Technology for Better Design

Pressure vessels often have to handle high stress environments while still maintaining proper internal pressures for whatever is stored within them. In order to better bridge that gap between concept and finished product, engineers can take advantage of programs like Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. These programs offer pressure vessel designers and engineers the ability to simulate stress and other conditions that the design might encounter, determine potential problems, and maximize the operational efficiency of the final product. 

Increased Automation in Fabrication

Thanks to more precise movement and smarter vision systems, more and more fabrication techniques are being automated every year. Welding is one of the most common processes that’s automated in pressure vessel fabrication, improving weld quality and consistency and reducing error–which is especially crucial for pressure vessels, where even a small error could impact the vessel’s functionality. 

Smarter Preventative Maintenance

The Internet of Things (IoT) has brought a whole new dimension to preventative maintenance. It provides operators with the ability to connect sensors inside and around a pressure vessel and its connected system in order to monitor things like temperature and pressure in real-time, as well as use that data to construct predictive maintenance plans and identify any problems or irregularities early on. These technologies significantly reduce the potential for premature failure, increase operational efficiency, and operator safety–and they can be accessed from a variety of devices, offering a collective storage of data and analyses for users to view at any time. 

Looking for an Expert Pressure Vessel Fabricator?

WINBCO has been setting the standard for pressure vessel fabrication for decades, and has built thousands of pressure and storage vessels over the past 80 years. If you’re interested, head over to our website to request a quote from us!