PROJECT BACKGROUND
In May 2018, Great Lakes Power Vac (GLPV) was contracted to perform a shell and tube heat exchanger cleaning for a food processing company in conjunction with a periodic inspection.
The plant’s Maintenance Manager needed our team onsite and on standby at 5:00am as one of their heat exchangers was opened up for inspection. During the inspection some plugging within the exchanger’s tubes was discovered, so GLPV was asked to use high pressure water blasting equipment to remove the sediment that had collected inside.
CHALLENGES
Due to the demands of daily operations, the project required our team to coordinate an early morning start time as well as a quick response under pressure. If our services proved unsuccessful, the plant’s processing system would be inoperable until the problem was corrected. Having this crucial piece of production equipment down would be a major disruption, costing the company valuable time and resources.
Our experienced team also had to perform the work from the plant’s rooftop catwalk in order to access the heat exchanger, so employee and environmental safety were key points of emphasis.
GREAT LAKES POWER VAC’S SOLUTION
Our prepared and professional team arrived early and set up the 10,000 PSI water blaster, hoses, lances, and additional tools required for the cleaning prior to the inspection. This laid the groundwork to refine our service efficiency and act quickly if cleaning needs were to arise.
Once we received notice that our services were needed, high pressure lances were utilized to successfully blast and clean out the sediment that had partially plugged the heat exchanger tubes.
GLPV’s power jetting services were completed on-time, without incident, and (most importantly) the system was approved for ongoing operation.
The job was conducted so smoothly and effectively that our customer brought our team back for the following inspection cycle to perform services a second time, allowing our flexible, reliable results to shine.
NEED TO COORDINATE EQUIPMENT CLEANING?
Great Lakes Power Vac can offer high-performance industrial vacuuming and cleaning services for routine maintenance, plant outages/shutdowns, or emergency response situations.
If your company needs to coordinate a cleaning with an upcoming inspection, be sure to contact us online today or give us a call at 800.822.4887.