Preparing For Launch In Shrewsbury | Metso Automation manufactures valves, gives students a shot at a career
Tucked along the shore of Lake Quinsigamond in Shrewsbury is a complex of buildings belonging to Metso Automation, a manufacturer that has a lot to do with why NASA space shuttle launches are as spectacular as they are.
Metso Automation was once valve-maker Jamesbury Corp. Through a series of mergers and buyouts and other typical corporate machinations, the company became part of the gigantic, Finland-based Metso Corp. about a decade ago.
The about 400 employees there still design, manufacture and sell valves, but the range of valves it deals with is staggering, as is the number of applications for them.
Metso makes small valves that can fit in your hand, large valves that weigh in at 12,000 lbs. and are 7 feet across and everything in between.
Primarily, ball valves and wafer valves are manufactured at Metso. The two valves do similar things. If you’re watching an action movie, and the hero is trying to stop water from flooding out of a pipe by turning a creaky old handle, he’s trying to close a wafer valve. There’s a metal disc in the pipe that turns parallel to the flow to allow water to pass through and blocks flow when closed.
Ball valves are part of the same family of “quarter-turn” valves that wafer valves are a part of. But instead of using a metal disc, there’s a metal sphere with a hole through it inside the valve. They’re closed with a straight handle. When the handle of the valve lines up with the line it regulates, it’s open. When it’s perpendicular to the line, it’s closed. You probably have these under the sinks in your house.
Some of the valves Metso makes in Shrewsbury are much more complex than “on” or “off,” however.
Some of them are used to separate hydrogen from natural gas or in natural gas-fired power plants, where they can be operated by digital positioners, also developed by Metso.
“A lot of the packages can be quite involved,” explained John Kennedy, a Metso engineer. “Some run water through them for cooling at steel mills and power plants, but a lot of them go out as just the valve, and no actuator.”
Ready For Liftoff
The Shrewsbury facility is engineering headquarters for Metso Automation. Metso Corp. is based in Helsinki, Finland, and is one of those global technology giants that seem to make just about everything.
“It’s surprisingly diversified,” Kennedy said.
Still, the company is committed to the community. It works with Worcester Technical High School and Quinsigamond Community College to get young people jobs in manufacturing and engineering.
At the Shrewsbury plant, manufacturing space dominates. All the sales, engineering and marketing space may be the same as what manufacturing takes up. There’s also an interesting test facility where valves can be tortured with temperatures as low as -100 F and pressures as high as 30,000 psi.
So, you’re probably wondering, “What about the space shuttle?”
Well, I asked Kennedy what one of the most unique or unusual applications for one of Metso’s valves would be and he said, “That’s easy.”
When the shuttle is launched, one of its signatures is the giant cloud of white steam that erupts around it.
That steam is created by water coming from one of Metso’s valves onto the launch platform. The water is used to cool the platform, which would otherwise melt under the intense heat created by the shuttle’s launch.
“NASA’s a pretty big customer of ours,” Kennedy said in an understated way.
Got news for our Industrial Strength column? E-mail WBJ Managing Editor Matthew L. Brown at mbrown@wbjournal.com.
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