Heat Exchanger Cleaning & Hydro Excavation Provides Many Benefits To Industrial & Commercial Entitie

By Author: Maude Lizotte
Total Articles: 2
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Heat exchanger cleaning

Heat exchangers can be found in numerous industrial places including natural gas processing plants, chemical plants, power plants, petrochemical plants and petroleum refineries. Improper performance of these units can play a big role in the final product’s cost as well as the speed of production.

A cleaning schedule should be created from an economic standpoint, i.e., when production speed begins to lag and the cost per unit begins to rise.

Heat exchanger cleaning involves some or all of the following:

All covers are safely removed
Inspect the as-found condition of the unit and document it
Wipe down and then perform another inspection
Inspect coating
Coating applications
Thorough cleaning of tubes
Complete tube cleaning with Goodway or Hydrolazing of pressures up to 40,000 pounds per square inch
Plugging of the tubes
Final inspection
The unit is securely closed

Many tools and techniques are used by well-trained technicians in the cleaning of heat exchangers. These include ...
... brushes that are driven by both air and water to clean sediment deposits from soft tubes without damaging them. Air-and water-propelled scrapers get rid of hard mineral and marine deposits, keeping abrasion at a minimum.

Hydro excavation

Utilities companies and others often need to go underground to work on lines or pipes. But getting to them can be difficult without causing damage. The process we’ll look at here safely clears the space so workers can do their jobs safely.

The process uses high-pressure water to break up earth and vacuum it away. Because it’s just water, it won’t damage a line or a pipe the way a shovel or a backhoe bucket will. Stories abound about lines that were accidentally cut into that caused the offending digger to be liable for tens of thousands of dollars.

Vacuuming out the broken up earth involves a high-powered vacuum that sits on a truck and removes debris through a suction pipe with a diameter of about 12 inches. The suction inlet air can reach speeds of 100 meters per second. That translates to 224 miles per hour.

Utilities companies as well as city and county governments will often use companies that specialize in hydro excavation when digging needs to be done – and as we’ve all seen, digging seems to be going on constantly for one reason or the other.

To sum up, heat exchanger cleaning on a regular basis allows for the units to run more efficiently and quickly, which saves money for whatever type of plant is using them. Hydro excavation uses high-pressure water to break up earth around utility and power lines, preventing damage that could occur during a digging job.

Maude Lizotte is a freelance writer for The Merrick Group, West Hazleton, Pa.-based specialists in heat exchanger cleaning and hydro excavation. Interested in finding out more about The Merrick Group? Visit our website today for more information.