Bladder Accumulator

Combining gas dynamic and high pressure water testing

Because of energy efficiency and their compact size METRUS uses pneumatic driven liquid pumps for generating high water pressure within all test benches. However, pneumatic driven liquid pumps do not deliver a suitable flow of volume. With water being mostly incompressible pressure stops increasing with the first leakage of the safety valve and flow will not set across the entire circumference of the valve seat. Once the valve starts to leak, the pump will carry on to deliver with its pulsation causing the gauges hand to oscillate, making it hard to get a proper reading.

Both downsides of pneumatic driven liquid pumps are compensated by implementing a bladder accumulator into the pressure supply system. Instead of delivering the pressure during the test itself, the pump will charge the bladder accumulator in beforehand to a level significantly higher than the test pressure itself. For the test itself pressure is taken from the pressure reservoir inside the bladder accumulator offering highest precision control via the test benches needle valve. Once the valve sets or leaks, the gas buffer inside the bladder accumulator “keeps pushing” a significant volume of water, sustaining a short flow across the entire valve seat. During the test procedure itself the pump is not active and the hand of the gauge will never oscillate.

Available for:

Safety Valve test benches:
– SV 20/200
– SV 20/400
– SV 50/400 & 400
– SV 50/400 E

On request for other models and custom solutions