1. Valves for the Furnace Industry
HISTORY
Process Development& Control LLC is located near Pittsburgh, PA USA .
This region has very strong ties to the steel industry.
All of the large international and local furnace companies that have ties to the steel industry are located in this region.
PDC began designing a cast damper valve that could be used for applications for controlling hot combustion gas.

2. Customers Served
Furnace OEM’s are engineering design and build companies that purchase the PDC valves that are to be used in conjunction with their heating process to melt and form steel slabs.
The following is a list of some of the furnace OEM’s that use our valves and automation for the controlling of the high temperature combustion air found in their heating process.
Core / Techint / Itam
Andritz Metals / Brickmont
CMI Industry America’s
Davy McKee /Davy McKee International
Kvaerner Metals
Fives North American
Stein Atkinson / Colios

3. Types of Furnaces
There are many designs and features of specific furnaces for all types of applications
The PDC valves are primarily used for the following furnace designs:
Walking Beam
Tunnel
Conveyor

4. End Users
The following is a listing of typical End Users that have PDC valves in their steel mills:
US Steel USX
POSCO
Gerdau
Nutec Bickley
Thysessen Krupp
Techint
California Steel
Midland
Arcelo-Mittal
Severstal
Hyundai
Baosteel

5. Small Local Furnace Companies
These companies specialize in design and build of specific components that are used for meeting a specific need of the end user.
The following companies use PDC valves in various ambient & hot air applications:
Swindell
Process Combustion
Olson Furnace
Bloom Engineering
Ipsen
Abbott Furnace
Seco Warwick
Forney Engineering
Some of these companies build burners for kilns that are used in the brick industry. As an example Acme brick uses PDC valves for their kilns based on a furnace that was designed by Swindell.

6. How PDC valves are used in the furnace industry
PDC valves are used for many air control applications on furnaces. Mainly they are used for combustion and reheat air. The combustion air valves are used to create an air/gas ratio mix. These are valves that are basically at ambient temperature. The reheat valves are used to recycle the hot air from the furnace exhaust to the pre stage burners. These valves can be rated for up to 1500˚F. The combustion air valves are mostly all automated with an electric or pneumatic actuator working off of a 4-20 Ma input signal. PDC offers brackets and linkage for a variety of actuators. The mechanical crank arm linkage can be used to set the low fire and high fire position as required.

7. PDC Valve Models
For ambient applications up to 450˚F PDC can offer our Series 09. This design offers a clean open pathway to allow for an accurate air/gas combustion process. This design is offered in sizes from 2 inch thru 14 inch. All bodies are wafer style that fit between either ANSI 125/150 flanges or RPM flanges.
For 16 inch thru 24 inch ambient air applications PDC would offer the Series 01 model.

8. Hot Air Applications
For piping systems that are working in the 1000˚F to 1500˚F temperature range PDC would offer our Series 40 valve design. This well tested design is offered in a variety on Materials of Construction based on the operating conditions.
Size range is 2 inch thru 60 inches. This design incorporates our Macor (ceramic) bearings that are rated for up to 2000˚F. Available options are available to customize the design to meet or exceed the applications. Some mounting hardware options that are available are :
Extended brackets
Heat shields
Heat break gaskets

9. Manual Valves
All PDC valves can be manually operated by either a manual gear box with a hand wheel or our unique 10 position / infinite locking hand lever. This infinite locking features allows the customer to fine tune the exact amount of air that is required for their process. This design is used on all balancing / trim valve applications.
PDC also offers 4 inch thru 8 inch extended brackets for all of its manually operated valves.

10. Specialty Valves
PDC offers Series 15 and Series 22 specialty type valves.
The Series 15 is our Reduced Port valve that is used in application were a customer is looking to reduce and control the CV of a larger than required pipe line. We offer this valve in the following sizes : 3in X 2.5in thru 14in X 12in.
If required PDC can also build these valves as a double reduced port. A example would be a: 10 in X 6 in
The Series 22 is a used when a customer has an application for a light weight low pressure valve that is to be used as a trim / balancing manual valve. The valve is supplied with our 10 positions / infinite locking hand lever for perfect CV control. Applications are for air services under 2 psi.

11. Metal Step Seat Option

12. Tadpole Seat Option

13. Series 15 Reduced Port

14. Series 09 with Electric Actuator

15. Series 40 High Temp design with optional Live Load Packing, Heat shield & Extended Bracket

16. Series 40 High Temp design with optional Idle End Limit Switch