A device and system are disclosed to clean the interior of tubes in air-cooled heat exchangers. The device is attached at each end of a tube by electromagnetism; either directly to a ferromagnetic tube header, or to a ferromagnetic plate secured to a non-ferromagnetic plug-type header or to a plate-type header of any metal. High pressure air with entrained dry finely-divided abrasive is conducted through a nozzle supported by the device. At the other end of the tube, another device supports a nozzle that captures the air, spent abrasive, and removed material. Spent abrasive and removed material are separated by filtration from the air before the air is exhausted to the environment. Tubes are cleaned to a bright metal condition, suitable for inspection or application of a corrosion-resistant coating, or to a lesser level of cleanliness appropriate for return to service.

Disclosed herein is a system for automatically cleaning boiler pipes, which includes a pipe-cleaning tank provided on one side of a casing to store a cleaning solution therein and a tank supply valve provided in the pipe-cleaning tank, so as to allow the cleaning solution stored in the pipe-cleaning tank to automatically flow into a heat exchanger and various pipes inside the casing by means of only a simple operation of manipulating the tank supply valve, thereby making it easy to eliminate scale that has accumulated in the heat exchanger and the pipes.

Disclosed herein is a system for automatically cleaning boiler pipes, which includes a pipe-cleaning tank provided on one side of a casing to store a cleaning solution therein and a tank supply valve provided in the pipe-cleaning tank, so as to allow the cleaning solution stored in the pipe-cleaning tank to automatically flow into a heat exchanger and various pipes inside the casing by means of only a simple operation of manipulating the tank supply valve, thereby making it easy to eliminate scale that has accumulated in the heat exchanger and the pipes.

A cleaning apparatus for cleaning a cooling tube array (15) of a heat exchanger has a nozzle carriage (16) movably held on a truss beam, and a plurality of cleaning nozzles (40) mounted to the nozzle carriage. A truss beam has two parallel C-channel rails (20) having back sides that face each other, a tube (22) arranged separate and distant from the C-channel rails and at a different height than the C-channel rails in a cross-sectional plane of the truss beam, and truss supports (24) connecting the rails and the tube; the nozzle carriage has rollers (48) that are arranged for travelling in the C-channel rails. A water intake (82) is coupled to the nozzle manifold (42) and to a hydraulic drive (80) having a mechanical power take-off member (96) that is operably coupled to the nozzle carriage (16) for moving the nozzle carriage.

A cleaning apparatus for cleaning a cooling tube array (15) of a heat exchanger has a nozzle carriage (16) movably held on a truss beam, and a plurality of cleaning nozzles (40) mounted to the nozzle carriage. A truss beam has two parallel C-channel rails (20) having back sides that face each other, a tube (22) arranged separate and distant from the C-channel rails and at a different height than the C-channel rails in a cross-sectional plane of the truss beam, and truss supports (24) connecting the rails and the tube; the nozzle carriage has rollers (48) that are arranged for travelling in the C-channel rails. A water intake (82) is coupled to the nozzle manifold (42) and to a hydraulic drive (80) having a mechanical power take-off member (96) that is operably coupled to the nozzle carriage (16) for moving the nozzle carriage.

A data logger device for monitoring operation of a flexible lance drive apparatus is disclosed that includes a cylindrical housing removably connected to an air fluid pressure line to the drive apparatus, a circuit board mounted in the housing, a pressure sensing switch mounted on the circuit board and communicating with the fluid in the pressure line, and a processor and memory on the board operable to log time at which the switch changes state between two predetermined states.

A data logger device for monitoring operation of a flexible lance drive apparatus is disclosed that includes a cylindrical housing removably connected to an air fluid pressure line to the drive apparatus, a circuit board mounted in the housing, a pressure sensing switch mounted on the circuit board and communicating with the fluid in the pressure line, and a processor and memory on the board operable to log time at which the switch changes state between two predetermined states.

A frame-mounted mobile cleaning system permanently positionable above or below the tube bundles of an air-cooled heat exchanger (ACHE) and in fluid communication with an external source of pressurized cleaning fluid includes a mobile transverse spray head assembly formed from a plurality of separate interchangeable fluid compartments, each fluid compartment having an inlet for receiving the pressurized cleaning fluid and a fluid discharge wall having at least one, and preferably a plurality of spaced-apart individual spray nozzles that are aligned with the longitudinal axes of the finned heat exchange tubes below or above, or elongated slot nozzles that are transverse to the axes of the finned tubes and that are configured to discharge a predetermined pattern, e.g., an elongated pattern of pressurized cleaning fluid onto and between the surfaces of the fins of the heat exchange tubes as the assembly is moved from one end of the ACHE tube bundles to the other. The system is advantageously securely mounted on a support frame that is, in turn, mounted on a transport mechanism that includes wheels that move on retaining tracks secured to the side walls of the ACHE housing, where the tracks extend to a storage position that is displaced from the open air circulation region above the tube bundles when the cleaning operation has been completed.

A method and to a cleaning device for cleaning tubes of tube bundles, wherein at least one rotating cleaning lance is used. During the insertion of the cleaning lance, the insertion depth E of the cleaning lance is measured and is stored and documented in a storage and documentation device. The cleaning device has an XY displacement device, on which a support rail is arranged, which supports a cleaning apparatus.

Lances for a heat exchanger tube lancing machine may be continuously supported in radial direction by being guided in a channel. Each channel has one solid bottom and two solid sides. The top of each channel is covered by a rubberlike lip or lip stripes, for instance a semi-flexible polyurethane sheet. Due to the narrow guiding surfaces within the channel it is possible to use more flexible high-pressure hoses as lances, which will not buckle though there might be severe advancing forces.