A failed pressure seal discovered during a holiday outage can quickly turn into a costly delay—especially when OEM replacement timelines stretch into weeks.
That was the situation facing South Mississippi Electric Power Association during a Thanksgiving outage. A critical high-pressure globe valve needed an immediate seal replacement to stay on schedule for restart.
Instead of accepting extended downtime, Industrial Valve Sales and Service partnered with EGC Enterprises to engineer, manufacture, and deliver a custom pressure seal in less than 24 hours—keeping the outage on track and avoiding a potential restart delay.
The Challenge
During a planned outage in Moselle, Mississippi, technicians identified a failed or required replacement pressure seal on a 3-inch, 1500 lb. class globe valve used in steam service.
This valve supported boiler feedwater and was essential to safe and timely plant restart operations.
Key constraints included:
- Extremely limited outage window during a holiday shutdown period
- OEM replacement pressure seal lead time of approximately 1.5–2+ weeks
- High-pressure steam service application requiring precision sealing performance
- Risk of extended downtime if replacement was not delivered immediately
- Restart schedule acceleration requiring installation by early Saturday morning
The operational risk was not just repair delay, but potential generation unit restart delays tied directly to valve readiness.
The Solution
Industrial Valve Sales and Service engaged EGC Enterprises to rapidly engineer and manufacture a replacement graphite pressure seal assembly for a high-pressure globe valve.
EGC produced a conventional pressure seal with top and bottom stainless steel caps using in-house CNC machining capabilities to eliminate external supplier delays and accelerate production.
The component was engineered, manufactured, and prepared for expedited shipment within hours of approval, utilizing Fast-Track™ Expedite Program.
Mitch Sahadi, EGC Manufacturing/Inventory Manager, noted the urgency:
“We had to engineer the seal, manufacture it and have it arrive in Moeselle in less than 24 hours, and that included the 12-hour drive to get it there,” said Sahadi. “We had no time to call our metal cap supplier but fortunately we had the capability to make the caps on our CNC equipment in-house.”
A dedicated driver departed EGC at approximately 3:00 PM and delivered the completed pressure seal in time for early-morning installation, enabling the valve repair to proceed as scheduled
Results and Benefits
The expedited manufacturing and delivery process enabled South Mississippi Electric Power to complete the valve repair within its outage window and proceed with restart operations without extended delay.
Key outcomes included:
- Enabled rapid manufacturing of a custom pressure seal under emergency conditions
- Supported uninterrupted outage scheduling and planned restart timeline
- Helped avoid extended downtime associated with OEM lead times
- Maintained continuity of steam service valve functionality
- Demonstrated in-house CNC manufacturing responsiveness for critical components
- Supported successful coordination between field service and manufacturing teams
This case demonstrates the value of emergency pressure seal manufacturing capability for power generation reliability and outage recovery support.
Need Help With a Similar Challenge?
Facing tight outage timelines or unexpected equipment failures?
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Contact us to discuss how we can support your next outage or emergency repair.