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Would a flow meter pick up if a bubbler circuit was vapor locked? If not does anyone know of a way to detect this condition within the mold. I am going to add a bleeder valve to the manifold system, but that does not detect. I'd like to create a warning that something is wrong with one or more of the 8 bubblers.
I would think the pressure would go up but the flow may be hard to detect. Interesting one.
Can you keep us posted?
Thanks,
Suhas
The pump may be vapor-locked. This term sounds complicated, but it simply means that air is trapped inside the pump. Pumps are designed to push water, not air so when an air bubble gets trapped, the pump becomes vapor locked. When this happens, the impeller is spinning, but water is not being pushed
I'm not doing a very good job of explaining. I have a mold with many water circuits including bubblers to cool high core steel. One bubbler per core (8 cavities.) During OQ it was found that one of the cores was running hot compared to the other 7. My initial thought was that the individual bubbler was vapor locked. I've seen this condition whereas bubbler circuit does not vent properly. I am going to add a bleeder valve to the manifold on the mold to help with this, but am looking to add a detection method as well.
I would think that a bubbler that is air locked would show a no flow condition because there is a true closed-loop circuit, whereas an air trap in a baffle system may not because water can flow past the baffle blade from the input side to the output side. (Although I would think that would be detectable as a very low GPM reading as well.
I have a good experiences with IR camera - start the tool a make a snapshot after 20 minutes ..... you will see if is all ok or not
A Block and bleed manifold is a hydraulic manifold that combines one or more block/isolate valves, usually ball valves, and one or more bleed/vent valves, usually ball or needle valves, into one component for interface with other components (pressure measurement transmitters, gauges, switches, etc.)
If you find that one core is always the hotter of the 8, first swap the water lines between the hot core and a cooler core. The bubbler inside the hot core may be the wrong length, too long and it would restrict the flow, too short and the water may not reach the end of the core to provide enough cooling. A flow meter on each circuit would detect this condition where a pressure gauge may not.