Clinker Cooler Rapid Repair Options

If your clinker cooler is underperforming or in the process of failing, we have some good news for you. In many cases, it can be repaired rather than replaced. The days of treating the entire heat exchanger as a single part are over. There may be no need to change out the entire module, a high cost and time-consuming process. You now have the option of upgrading eroded sections of your heat exchanger with minimal disruption to your operation.

Our experience has shown that the duct system usually has about 10%-15% of the total area with damage that should be addressed. These types of projects could require 15 to 20-man crew to remove, repair, or replace the ducts if the defective locations can be identified. The planning must include the associated electrical equipment and sometimes other utilities. Longer outages and higher maintenance cost are always expected with this approach.

Erosive clinker dust can sand blast heat exchanger tubes, creating holes that severely hamper the cooler and impact operating equipment up and downstream. CMS accesses the damage to these units, and whenever possible, uses proprietary alloys and processes to repair the damaged areas quickly. Our goal is to upgrade the equipment repair areas to increase service life of these problematic areas. We rebuild or repair the heat exchangers including providing upgrades to protect the tubes and tubesheets.

CMS’s heat exchanger repair option is not an off-the-shelf, unnecessary overkill solution. What makes us unique is that we are able to selectively repair the damaged section as deep into the heat exchanger as needed instead of replacing the whole heat exchanger of sections of full length tubes. So we can retrofit the current model as it is designed or offer options for improvements. The overall approach that CMS offers provides the same results in a shorter time and less cost that the modular repair if it is not needed. In addition, the CMS repair solution eliminates the front-end engineering work needed plan for a major replacement project.

Repair can also help you avoid the hidden or potential problems that can occur during the longer installation process involved with installing brand new equipment. “Point us in the right direction, tell us where you want to put the new and old tubes, and we’ll call you in five days when we’re done,” says Eddie English, CMS Operations Manager. “The amount of support that we don’t require, I can’t even begin to put that into savings. It’s one of those things that if we could calculate a number, it would be significant.”

In support of this work, CMS offers an extremely effective high angle rope access repairs and inspections service. The rope access experts apply NDT equipment to pinpoint problem areas in hard-to-access areas of a plant. We also offer a world-class safety program (OSHA-SHARP designation) that provides you with access to a variety of services, including onsite confined space entry personnel and rescue teams (often former or current firefighters). CMS has been providing trustworthy solutions to the Cement, Energy, and other Industries since 1982.