Introduction

Company Background > Mission Statement > Personnel > Historical Background > Scope of Service >
Biach in the Nuclear Industry >

Company Background:
Founded in 1955, John Biach established his company in response to a growing need to assure leak free closure on large vessels through the use of customized bolt tensioner designs to create the high loading requirement and consistent nut seating.

The company grew rapidly as engineers from many fields consulted with Mr. Biach to help them with their particular demands and difficult bolting geometries. The power industry has been the most widely in need of vessel closure needs. The refinery and petro-chemical fields required assurance that vessels as well as flanges on pipelines would not leak.  The construction field consulted with Biach to assure structures would withstand high force winds and heavy loads, including virtually all cable suspension bridges.  Standard, off the shelf, products did not exist to meet the varying load requirements, significant space restrictions and handling concerns of each customer.

Biach's expertise grew in many areas.  Naval nuclear projects expanded as the nuclear navy grew with on board reactor, coolant pump, catapult and arresting gear (aircraft carriers) applications dictating rigid accuracy and assured performance. NASA came to Biach to develop custom tensioners for the shuttle booster rockets. Equipment manufacturers realized the value of tensioning vs. torguing a joint to improve their assembly process and quality of their equipment.

Biach established itself as the leader in precision tightening in many fields. With emerging changes in the power industry, Biach's engineers focused on newer technologies in order to meet demands of faster operation for shorter outages and less downtime, reduced manpower and ALARA reduced dose goals.

Today, Biach supports these customers with records, operating manuals, detailed engineering drawings and parts lists dating back to 1955 and offers new customers significant depth in design approaches to meet new challenging projects.

Mission Statement: back to top >
To meet the emerging needs of our customers, faced with the need for special tooling and services to respond to critical needs of their particular operations through the dedication, support and engineering expertise developed in over 50 years experience.

Personnel: back to top >
Biach's staff includes engineers, technicians and machinists expertly  trained in their respective disciplines, fully knowledgeable in all Biach equipment and systems and keenly aware of customer needs and field applications.

If the focus is project review and design development, refurbishing or modifying older tooling or providing field support during plant outages, Biach personnel are trained to meet all situations and fully understand the working environment of site maintenance, engineering and outage department protocol.

Biach’s organization brings over 250 cumulative years of application review, equipment design, manufacture and service expertise to each new project.

Historical Background: back to top >
Founded in 1955, John Biach developed the “HydraLoc” as a hydraulic solution to filter press closure issues. He went on to apply the concept of hydraulic tensioning for bolts and studs on large vessels for the power and chemical processing industries.

The company grew significantly when nuclear power became prominent and as refineries and chemical plants expanded in the 1960s and 1970s.

The concept of hydraulic stud tensioning became a welcomed solution to many critical bolting projects. Vessel closures could now be leak free. Flanges and heat exchangers could be assembled easily with assurances of equal nut tightening through controlled stud loading. Construction projects like windmills, towers and bridges gained critical assurances that projects could withstand high winds, vibration and seismic issues. Large cranes, power shovels and draglines all needed assurance that such large rotating equipment would be secure during operation.

Engineers from around the world consulted with John Biach in reviewing their projects, their concerns and their goals. Biach Industries became the leader in custom designed stud tensioners to suit the many different geometries, load requirements and working environments of each.

During the growth, Biach engineers developed a range of “standard” tensioners designed around the parameters of standard ANSI flanges. Labeled Biach’s “C” tensioner, and later the “CC model”, they were easily adapted to other stud sizes on standard flanges for practicality and cost savings. Refineries and bolting service companies came to Biach to acquire the range of tooling needed for their facilities and work scopes.

More complex projects followed. The US Navy sought improved means of addressing catapult and arresting gears for aircraft carriers. Nuclear powered submarines needed very complex, special designed stud tensioning systems for their reactors and coolant pumps. The Space Shuttle required very controlled tightening of booster hold down studs prior to lift off. The nuclear industry needed special underwater stud tensioners and a special underwater control rod shearing tool.

Equipment manufacturers valued the consistency of controlled stud loading and nut tightening through tensioning over torque tools that produced severe tightening variations and created nut seating friction issues. Assembly lines needed assurance that each step was performed properly to maximize productive capacity.

Medical equipment manufacturers recognized Biach’s capabilities and expertise and contracted with Biach to develop specialty equipment for their assembly processes.

Cable suspension bridge projects required accurate and repeatable bolt tightening for cable band harnesses (clamps), tower anchor bolts and light illumination stands. Other types of bridge projects followed for tie rods for floor beam supports, setting counterweights, suspender rods and strut and bolster hold down supports.

The key to Biach’s growth and success has been:

Though known world wide with a diverse and expansive history, Biach is able to work with both large and small companies as projects require. Whether it’s an international conglomerate or a small subcontractor, Biach is capable of understanding the needs of each. This small company approach produces fast design turnarounds and quality equipment at reasonable cost to meet client schedules and budgets. With approximately 200 cumulative years of design expertise and experience, let Biach put that to work on your bolting project.

Scope of Service: back to top >
Biach has expanded its field service organization and  formalized its structure and approach to assure our customers that the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is ready, available and prepared to provide the turnkey, complete service of overseeing each of its products and systems.

The entire Biach organization is ready to provide support and assistance both in engineering review and analysis, manufacturing and parts supply to the field  staff. Our aim for quality equipment - in design and manufacture - extends to our aim for quality field support to our customers

Biach In the Nuclear Industry: back to top >
Founded in 1955, John Biach established his company in response to a growing need to assure leak free closure on large vessels through the use of customized bolt tensioner designs to create the high loading requirement and consistent nut seating.

The company grew rapidly as engineers from many fields consulted with Mr. Biach to help them with their particular demands and difficult bolting geometries. The power industry has been the most widely in need of vessel closure needs. The refinery and petro-chemical fields, while also having vessel closure difficulties, also required assurance that flanges on pipelines would not leak. The construction field consulted with Biach to assure structures would withstand high force winds and heavy loads, including virtually all cable suspension bridges. Standard, off the shelf, products did not exist to meet the varying load requirements, space restrictions and handling concerns of each customer. Biach’s expertise grew in many areas. Naval nuclear projects expanded as the nuclear navy grew with on board reactor, coolant pump, catapult and arresting gear (aircraft carriers) applications dictating rigid accuracy and assured performance.

Over 90% of the commercial nuclear plants and many experimental nuclear facilities in the U.S. have used Biach tensioning systems to meet their needs. Many sites overseas also have Biach systems as provided through General Electric or Westinghouse when vessels were first delivered.

In recent years, Biach engineers have responded to plant requests for faster operation. Biach’s QD, or Quick Disconnect, tensioning system was developed in the mid 1970’s for the GE BWR 6 plant program and later became a method of upgrading existing facilities to this newer, faster technology.

Biach assisted with the design and manufactured the components for the Westinghouse QA, or Quick Acting, stud tensioner design in the early 1980’s.

In 1994, Biach engineers perfected the stud latching type mechanism of the QD tensioner to engage helical (QD-H) stud designs of existing plants. This provided financial justification to sites that previously would have needed to fund complete stud replacement for the QD annular groove thread design. Ten U.S. sites and one overseas site ( Slovenia) have converted to this system.

Today, Biach is adding the elongation monitoring and measurement components within its QD and QD-H type stud tensioner designs. This addition allows the plant to determine – while the tensioner is on the stud – if the resulting elongation is satisfactory and within allowable limits. If not, then the stud can quickly be re-tensioned and the nut seated further to attain the desired elongation. This saves considerable time from lifting the tensioner off, completing the sequence and then going back to take total elongation readings to see if all studs meet the criteria or if a “trim pass” is needed. This equates to significant critical path savings. Biach engineers are heavily focused on reactor pressure vessel closure issues and this demonstrates our growing technology.

Biach personnel participate in the field for real hands on operation and understanding of the environment. They perform routine tensioner maintenance at many sites to free the site of that task and provide site management with expert inspection and overhaul. Outage support is supplied at many sites to aid them in performing the work flawlessly and quickly. Since use of the tensioners is normally only every 18 or 24 months, Biach brings the expertise to quickly train crews and standby to assist them if a question or concern arises. The Biach Information Arts (BIA) group specializes in process documentation and formalized custom training packages on all Biach equipment as well as related site equipment. Complete tensioner and EPN pumping system training packages were prepared for the Exelon fleet of sites. So. California Edison’s San Onofre site also purchased custom packages for their Biach equipment, a special training package on the Polar Crane for refuel supervisors and another on the crane’s Load Cell. With the emergence of early retirement programs and the need to reduce staff sizes, BIA is able to help sites capture tribal knowledge and document equipment and process operations.

Biach – for 50 years – has focused on improving work in the nuclear field through new technology, manpower assistance, training and standby support. New stud tensioner designs, faster and more accurate pumping systems, stud and nut removal equipment, elongation systems and clear, concise documentation packages demonstrate this forward type thinking.

back to top >