Flanges · Made in-house
Spectacle blinds,
spades and spacers
Line blanks for positive isolation, manufactured in our own machine shop in carbon steel, stainless steel and super duplex, on fast lead times.
Positive isolation, made to your line size and rating
Spectacle blinds, spades and spacers are fitted between a pair of flanges to isolate a line for maintenance, testing or commissioning, or to hold the gap once the line is back in service. Following a large expansion of our machining facility, Midsteel manufactures all three in-house, in multiple material grades and on fast lead times.
Tell us the pipe size, pressure class, flange standard and material, or send a drawing, and we will machine to suit. Because we also stock the flanges, you can source the complete joint from one supplier.
Specification
Line blank specification
Other grades, pressure ratings and wall thicknesses are available on request. Material test certificates to EN 10204 3.1 are supplied as standard.
In stock
What we manufacture
- Spectacle blinds
- Spades / line blinds
- Spacers / ring spacers
- Special flanges from forgings, bar and plate
- Blanks to customer drawings
Spectacle blind, spade or spacer?
A spectacle blind combines a solid blank and an open ring, joined by a web, so the line can be switched between isolated and open simply by rotating it. The unused half stays visible, which shows at a glance whether the line is shut. A spade (paddle blank) is a single solid plate with a handle for temporary isolation, and a spacer is the matching open ring that fills the gap when the spade is removed.
Spades and spacers are generally used on larger lines where a one-piece spectacle blind would be too heavy to handle. The thickness of each blank depends on the pipe size, pressure and material. We will confirm dimensions against your specification before we machine.
Machined in the West Midlands
Our machine shop works from stock plate and forgings, so there is no waiting on an outside subcontractor.
- Fast lead times on standard sizes
- Special flanges from forgings, bar and plate
- Send your RFQ to sales@midsteel.com
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ISO 9001:2015Lloyd’s (LRQA) approved quality system
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EN 10204 3.1 certsFull material traceability as standard
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Same-day serviceAvailable on urgent stock and machined specials
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In-house machiningSpecials and hard-to-find sizes made to order
FAQs
Spectacle blind questions
Can't find the answer? Our sales team can advise on grades, standards and lead times.
Need a price or a delivery date?
Send us your enquiry, schedule or drawing and our sales team will come back to you with stock, price and lead time.