TPT July 2015

Technology News

Tube cleaning to enable IRIS inspection INTERNAL Rotary Inspection System (IRIS) is the inspection technique of choice for asset owners requiring accurate inspection reports. For IRIS to be performed correctly the tubes must be cleaned to bare metal, which can be a challenge when cleaning is completed using traditional techniques. A Canadian refinery was concerned about its CCR platformers’ VCFE tube integrity, as traditional contractors that used water jetting/chemicals could not achieve IRIS inspection standards. The site needed to accurately determine tube wall thickness to anticipate asset life. A capex replacement of these multi-million dollar heat exchangers looked inevitable. 100 per cent of the 1,434 tubes per exchanger had to be cleaned to production standard and ten per cent of tubes had to be highly polished to IRIS standard. Deposits with the tubes were found to be gummy, hydro-carbon scale. The small 18" diameter man way/nozzle, located on the side of a fully welded header at right angles to tube sheet, was accessed using bespoke remote technology developed by UK-based Tube Tech International. The tubes were drilled, descaled, polished and inspected to production standard. A remote control IRIS Standard tube polishing technology was then applied from top down. This technique is also capable of inspecting vertical tubes of 65 feet (20m) upwards. A guaranteed IRIS inspection standard was achieved first time and both CCR platformers were cleaned simultaneously within the client’s timeframe. Commenting on the success of the contract, the turnaround block coordinator said: “I think you have made your mark here and you left a great good impression with the PI group and the right people in the PI group who want to use you in future – especially for IRIS. When you do IRIS testing and you do it the first time and there is no rework then there is no added cost, whereas onsite in the past we had to clean and re-clean and re-clean, and it’s not only the cost of the cleaning company, it’s the cost of all the other resources that are supporting that activity. So it all compounds. Although the outset costs were higher than your typical incumbent, the overall cost is cheaper because of less re-work and less compounding costs from other resources.”

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V A L C O M . f r

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J uly 2015