Ferralium® 255 Valve Internals — Reverse Engineered from a Worn Part

Client name withheld for privacy.

Background

A local Edmonton-based valve services contractor was called to overhaul a critical process valve at a gold mining operation in Ontario. The contractor's founder spent years with a major international valve OEM before going independent — the firm now handles valve overhauls at refineries, breweries, and mines across North America.

The valve in question was a medium-bore globe-type in cyanide leach service — one of the most corrosive environments in process industry. Pulling the internals revealed the problem: the seat ring and integral stem/plug were worn past serviceability. Replacement parts were needed.

The problem: the original valve manufacturer was no longer in business. No engineering drawings existed anywhere in the contractor's records or the mine's maintenance files. The worn parts themselves were the only reference.

The contractor reached out to Bhurjee Industries to machine the replacement internals — and to produce the engineering drawings that should have existed from day one.

Confirming the Material

With no OEM documentation, the first question was: what alloy are the existing parts?

The worn internals were submitted for PMI (Positive Material Identification) testing. The result confirmed Ferralium® 255 SD50 — a super duplex stainless steel (UNS S32550) selected by the original manufacturer for its resistance to the aggressive cyanide leach chemistry in service.

No substitute material was acceptable. Ferralium 255 carries high chromium (25%), molybdenum (3.5%), and nitrogen content engineered for environments where standard duplex grades fall short. One complete set was required with no margin for scrap on an alloy of this cost and lead time.

The Reverse Engineering Process

With the PMI result confirmed and the alloy sourced, the dimensional work began. The worn seat ring and integral stem/plug were measured manually — calipers, micrometers, bore gauges, and angle gauges — every feature of every surface captured by hand.

Those measurements went into SolidWorks to build a solid model. From the model, two documents were generated:

• Production drawing — fully dimensioned, toleranced, and surface-finish specified, issued to the machining floor
• Dimensional acceptance criteria — the same drawing recast as a QC checklist, used by the quality department to accept or reject the finished parts

Neither document had existed before. The mine is now running a valve that has a full engineering record.

The Parts

Seat Ring — precision bored and faced to the seating angle derived from the PMI'd worn part. Seating diameter and angle held to close tolerance. Finish ground on the sealing surface.

Integral Stem/Plug — turned, threaded to the body thread form captured from measurement, plug-faced to match seat ring geometry. All geometry derived from the in-service part.

Both parts machined from Ferralium® 255 SD50 bar stock with full MTR. Ferralium 255 machines differently from conventional stainless — higher cutting forces, rapid work hardening — and requires tooling and parameters specifically dialled for the alloy.

Documentation Delivered

Document	Detail
Material Test Report	Ferralium® 255 SD50 — full chemistry and mechanical properties
Dimensional Inspection Report	Both parts measured to the new production drawing
Production Drawing — Seat Ring	SolidWorks, fully dimensioned and toleranced
Production Drawing — Stem/Plug	SolidWorks, fully dimensioned and toleranced

The contractor now owns complete engineering documentation for a valve they had been servicing with no drawings for years. The next set of replacement parts can be ordered against a drawing — no reverse engineering required.

Outcome

One complete valve trim set delivered. The contractor installed the new internals, the mine's process line returned to service. Turnaround from receiving the worn parts to delivering the new set was measured in weeks — fast enough for a planned maintenance window without becoming a production stoppage.

What started as a one-off reverse engineering job became a permanent asset: a documented, repeatable supply item on a valve that previously had no engineering record anywhere in the world.