Engineering:Tube cleaning

For the tube cleaning of steam locomotive boilers, see Tube cleaning (locomotive).

Tube cleaning describes the activity of, or device for, the cleaning and maintenance of fouled tubes.

Cleaning methods

Depending on application, conveying medium and tube material, the following methods of tube cleaning are available:

Chemical process

Chemical tube cleaning is understood to be the use of cleaning liquids or chemicals for removing layers and deposits. A typical example is the deliming of a coffee maker where scale is removed by means of acetic acid or citric acid. Depending on the field of application and tube material, special cleaning liquids may be used which also require a multi-stage treatment:

• chemical activation
• cleaning
• rinsing

Mechanical process

A mechanical tube cleaning system is a cleaning body that is moved through the tube in order to remove deposits from the tube wall. In the most simple case it is a matter of a brush that is moved in the tube by means of a rod or a flexible spring (device). In large-scale technology and industrial sector, however, several processes have developed which necessitate a more detailed definition.

On-line process

Schematic representation of the cleaning process and of the filtration technology

Special types

Special types of tube cleaning are all such types which are partly in experimental stage only and do not come under the process types mentioned before, such as, for example:

• induction of water hammers, so that the layer or deposit comes off through short-term material elongation
• use of vibration generators, partly at the tubes through vibration exciters, partly by means of piezoelectric crystals in the conveying medium, in order to transform the conveying medium into a cleaning medium through reduction of the surface tension
• magnetic fields to avoid tube calcification
• nanotechnical treatment of tube surfaces to avoid layers and deposits

See also

• Fouling
• Fouling Mitigation
• Biofouling