Exchanger Tube Cleaning
Predictable tube ID cleaning for NDE – an evolution of Curran Internationals' tube surface prep creating a revolution for PEI.
In the course of cleaning “used” exchanger tubes for coating applications, Curran International adapted its technique to surface-prep small tubular equipment for high-integrity NDE inspections. It has become the preferred method to clean tube IDs for improved mechanical integrity. This work is performed at refinery and petrochemical plants during turnarounds and equipment maintenance outages and has proven successful against common and enhanced forms of hydroblasting.
Refinery clients from the Gulf Coast to Canada to California incorporate this cleaning method as part of their turnaround work scope. The method provides for greater sensitivity to small defects, faster analysis time as a result of decreased “background noise” affecting data, greater accuracy in sizing indications, accelerated acquisition time as a result of cleaner tubes, and high degree of “fill factor” (larger probe diameter).
Curran International has long served the power and energy industries, providing surface prep for NDE of steam and gas turbine fixed equipment; most of these projects are performed as critical path schedules during plant maintenance outages. Over the years, Curran International has incorporated process improvements to meet client expectations:Exchanger tube cleaning for RFET, IRIS, LOTIS inspections
Dry blast exchanger tube cleaning
- Exchanger tube ID cleaning
- Fin Fan exchanger tubes
- In-situ blast containment
- All exchanger tube sizes
- Boiler tube IDs, Claus boilers
- Package boilers, furnace tubes
- U-tube exchangers
- All metallurgies
- Grit collection, recovery
Prep for NDE inspections
- Proven to remove hard scale
- Clean all corrosion from IDs
- Improve NDE data collection
- Eliminate cleaning delays
- Predictable NDE data
- IRIS, RFET, LOTIS
Adaptable containment solutions
- Containment for in-situ
- Blast pad containment
- Fin fan dust collection system
- Vacuum minimizes all dust
What Our Clients Say:
Refinery PEI Engineer:
4” OD x 18’L convection furnace tubes - “…these were the cleanest tubes…quality job, timely execution…”
Gulf Coast Operations Manager – NDE company:
“As
you’re aware, our ability to fully inspect internal surfaces with LOTIS
is directly dependant on the cleanliness of the tubes, and there was no
question that these tubes were the cleanest I’ve ever seen for this
type of inspection.”
Lead Inspection Analyst – Texas petrochemical plant:
“I
feel strongly that having cooling water tube side exchangers cleaned by
grit blasting allows much greater confidence in determining relevant
from non-relevant data.”
PEI specialist/NDE focal point, Gulf Coast refinery:
“…the
results of the cleaning effort were excellent. We were never able to
clean these tubes for IRIS using hydroblasting, thus were forced to use
RFET….We will continue to use Curran International for cleaning when
IRIS inspection is necessary.”