The anti-corrosion coating on the heat exchanger tube bundle cannot be cleaned using high-pressure water
Thread Content
The image below shows the water-cooler tube bundles in a petrochemical company’s production facility, which are equipped with anti-corrosion coatings. Cleaning them using high-pressure water (80 MPa) can easily damage these anti-corrosion coatings (the yellow marks seen in the image).
The poster’s sharing is so useful! Many technicians working in petrochemical maintenance have fallen into this pitfall; ultra-high pressure water can indeed damage the coating on heat exchanger tubes that have anti-corrosion coatings, and the marks shown in the image are typical examples of such damage. Here are a few practical tips for everyone: Before cleaning, be sure to find out the maximum water pressure that this anti-corrosion coating can withstand; never use extremely high-pressure water for cleaning without checking first ； For such coated tube bundles, a combination of low-pressure water flushing with mild chemical descaling can be considered as an optimal solution; it enables the removal of scale without damaging the anti-corrosion coating ； If high-pressure water treatment is indeed necessary, it is essential to first conduct small-scale tests in non-critical areas to confirm that everything is fine before proceeding with the full-scale operation. It is best to consult a professional anti-corrosion maintenance team regarding specific cleaning procedures, as different types of anti-corrosion coatings have quite different tolerances for various cleaning methods.