Heat Exchanger Cleaning

Fairtex Group offers exchanger cleaning services that help achieve safe and effective cleaning. We provide an effective method of heat exchanger cleaning with a significantly reduced impact on the environment. Using the patented Projectile Bundle Cleaner, we remove fouling at the core of the exchanger, restoring heat transfer to near design specifications.

Fairtex Group's heat exchanger tube cleaning services utilize the same mechanical methods as our condenser tube cleaning services, but on a smaller scale. Our clients often require us to clean small heat exchanger bundles in conjunction with larger condenser tube cleaning jobs. Our technicians have extensive experience cleaning various smaller tube bundles, such as oil lube coolers, exciters, feedwater heaters, hydrogen coolers, stator coolers, and numerous others.

We can also offer rotary heat exchanger tube cleaning services for certain heat exchangers. Some conditions that may call for rotary heat exchanger tube cleaning could be very small tube sizes or limited access to the heat exchanger, which would make water-propelled mechanical tube cleaning not possible.

Fairtex Group offers a wide range of heat exchanger cleaning methods, such as mechanical methods (e.g., scrapers, scrubbers, and plastic bullets), as well as our patented grit blast cleaning method. Our grit blast cleaning services are well-suited to applications where the contaminant is hard, such as calcite or when non-destructive examination (NDE) services like eddy current or remote field testing will be employed.

The steam condenser plays a critical role in the overall performance of all modern steam-generated power stations. The main purpose of a steam condenser is to condense the exhausted steam from the low-pressure turbine and convert it into water/condensate, which, in turn, will be reused in the boiler as feedwater. Additionally, the condensing equipment also functions to provide a "cold source" in the steam turbine thermodynamic Rankine cycle.

Mechanical cleaning is another way to maintain heat exchanger performance; however, it requires access considerations and often necessitates removing the unit from the process entirely so the servicing team can access all parts of the bundles.

In our team's experience, we often find that access to the inside of tubes is usually easy on Shell and Tube-type exchangers, but U-tubes can present some challenges. If the original designer has taken cleaning and maintenance into account, they may have included removable bundles, square or large pitches to make access easier.

As for the cleaning equipment itself, there are nearly as many types of tools as there are exchangers to be cleaned. To remove soft deposits, servicing teams will use a combination of brushes, scrapers, and drills (manual or motor-driven, with or without water flushing). Mechanical cleaning can be used on the tube side or shell side, but care has to be taken to ensure that the tools are used correctly to avoid causing damage.

For brittle and hard deposits, high-pressure water jetting is a common mechanical cleaning process, with pressure ranges of 200 to 3000 bar. The water enters cracks in the fouling, forcing the crack to propagate and fracturing the deposit, allowing it to be flushed away. Hydro Jetting is also a very efficient method of mechanical cleaning and is often used on a large number of exchangers at once, for example, during a refinery turnaround.