Metal Bellows - Types & Applications

Metal bellows are at the heart of precision bellows technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Rubber and plastic bellows are used in less demanding applications. These items bear little similarity to the classic leather bellows used in forges and fireplaces.

Metal bellows are elastic vessels that can be compressed or stretched when pressure is applied to the outside of the vessel. If the pressure or vacuum is removed, the bellows will return to their former shape, as long as the material has not been stretched beyond their yield strength. They are employed for their capacity to deform under pressure as well as for providing a hermetic seal that allows movement.

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Types of Metal Bellows:

Formed bellows are made by reworking tubes, which are generally made by deep drawing, using a number of procedures such as cold forming (rolling) and hydroforming. Convoluted bellows and sylphons are other names for them.

Welded bellows (also known as edge-welded or diaphragm bellows) are made by welding together a number of individually constructed diaphragms. The cost and performance of the two bellows kinds are frequently compared. Hydroformed bellows have a high tooling cost but may have a cheaper piece price when mass-produced.

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Hydroformed bellows, on the other hand, have lower performance characteristics due to their comparatively thick walls and high rigidity. Welded metal bellows provide a cheaper initial tooling cost and superior performance qualities. The disadvantage of welded bellows is the reduced metal strength at weld joints produced by the high welding temperature.

Electroformed bellows are made by electroforming (plating) a metal layer onto a model (mandrel) and then removing the mandrel. They may be created with minimal tooling costs and thin walls (25 micrometres or fewer), giving excellent sensitivity and precision in many stringent applications, and they can also be produced in geometries that would be extremely difficult to produce by conventional means with little additional trouble.

Another area of comparison is in building metals. Hydroformed and rolled bellows can only be made of metals with high plastic elongation, whereas welded bellows can be made of a larger range of common and exotic alloys, including stainless steel and titanium, as well as other high-strength, corrosion-resistant materials. Nickel, high-strength alloys, and copper can all be used to make electroformed bellows.

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Applications:

Metal bellows are widely employed in a variety of industrial applications. Here are a few examples:

• Load cells:

When a load cell is subjected to a load in the form of a pressure or a strain, it deforms. This deformation is then sensed by a strain gauge, which is powered by a low voltage direct current. The voltage change is monitored and displayed on a control panel. To protect the gauge from outside effects, a bellows is installed over it.

• Vacuum interrupters:

In transformer stations, a high vacuum or high-pressure dielectric gas must be maintained around the contacts while in service to prevent arc development, which would damage the contacts and perhaps impede safe circuit breaking. The bellows in this case allow the contacts to move in and out while maintaining a consistent gas-tight seal.

• Mechanical seals:

These are typically employed to seal off the inside of a pump from the outside world in order to avoid leaking. A mechanical seal is installed on the pump shaft for this reason. As the pump shaft rotates, a sealing device consisting of a stationary and a spinning ring must be present. To apply appropriate pressure to the two rings, a spring is used, and the bellows allow the spring to move freely without leaking. The bellows can be built in such a way that it also serves as a spring.

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• Pressure gauges:

When measuring the pressure of hostile fluids or gases, the gauge must be isolated from the flow. In the gauge, a diaphragm sealing is employed instead of a bourdon tube for essential applications. This provides greater security because aggressive media will not leak. The diaphragm is a self-contained sensor that sends displacement information to the measurement equipment.

• Sensors:

A diaphragm or convoluted bellows is totally sealed and filled with a specific gas in this application. Two electrical poles are inserted into the bellows. The temperature inside the bellows can be controlled by altering the current of those two poles. The bellows' expansion and contraction operate as an actuator to regulate a certain movement.

? Valve sealing: To completely isolate the inside from the outside world, a bellow is placed between the housing and the valve stem. This is especially important in Europe, where regulations such as TA-Luft prevent any leaking.