Inventive High Pressure Water Jetting
Many innovative alternatives - a new approach to cleaning heat transfer equipment
Inventive High Pressure Water Jetting
Many innovative alternatives - a new approach to cleaning heat transfer equipment
Serious blockages in several air-cooled condensers had begun to affect production at an oil refinery in the UK. Tube Tech’s brief was to reduce the time for a critical path cleaning project by half.
Both the delicate, external, aluminium fins and internal tubes had become fouled and blocked meaning virtually no heat transfer availability across three banks of updraft fin fan condensers.
The air-cooled condensers required internal and external cleaning and the Tube Tech Planning Team recommended their patented Multi-SafeFlex system in conjunction with a 100% environmentally friendly, biodegradable wash which expands on contact.
Apart from giving the most efficient clean possible, another advantage of this twin-pronged approach over standard tube jetting was the Safetyboss. This innovation ensures several lances and jets can be used simultaneously and safely side by side by one or two operatives.
Work is done within a narrow 3 foot walkway with no scaffolding requirements and eliminates the risk of lances exiting the tube whilst cleaning. The biodegradeable wash is applied from both sides and TTIL’s latest innovation allow it to be applied whilst the unit is actually on-line.
This approach enables a number of processes to be carried out simultaneously whereas standard high-pressure jetting involves one manual lancing process at a time within confined areas. Mindful that downtime was costly for the client, Tube Tech completed the work in less than two days, more than halving the time of competitors’ three days. Tube Tech’s “contained” method meant waste could be captured and directed in a controlled manner to ground level maintaining a clean working environment.
Tube Tech’s Managing Director Mike Watson said: “We were asked to reduce downtime, improve cleanliness and improve safety against European competition. The team achieved all three.
Our company objective of achieving far more than was expected of us was fulfilled. It was another example of how looking at situations in a different way can create amazing results.
We encourage clients to resist the ‘done it this way for so long, why change’ approach, in place of our inventive, technology driven route. This has led to literally millions of dollars in quantifiable savings for many of our clients by improving production rates, reducing mechanical costs and upping plant efficiencies.”
Clients can be contacted via Tube Tech for references.
Fin Fan (External Fins) Overhead Crude, Air-Cooled Condensers Cleaned with Minimal Scaffold
Fin Fan Air Cooled Condenser (ACC) Cleaned in One Day
