MPW’s technology leads to superior cleaning at Ohio plant

Challenge

A global polymer producer located in Ohio sought to improve the annual outage cleaning of its heat exchangers.

Historically, industrial cleaning contractors hand lanced the heat exchanger tubes, servicing four to six exchangers per night for two weeks to fit within the outage schedule. But often, multiple heat exchangers would require re-cleaning to allow for heat exchanger inspection methods, which led to costly delays.

When MPW Industrial Services began working at this location, it knew it could improve the efficiency and safety of the heat exchanger cleaning process.

Solution

MPW’s commitment to safety and innovation allowed the company to enhance this process, as its Engineering, Operations and Training Departments employed automated lance machines and the automated Bundle Shell Side Cleaner at this site. These processes removed personnel from potentially dangerous situations and achieved a more consistent, effective cleaning.

Results

MPW finished this project early during the two-week outage, cleaning more than 22,000 tubes in 26 heat exchangers.

None of MPW’s work on this project required re-cleaning after inspections. According to personnel at the plant it was the first time in at least 20 years a cleaning team was able to achieve this level of success.

MPW’s technology improved the cleaning process with the following highlights:
• The customer returned to production ahead of schedule.
• The customer saved nearly $27,000 versus the cost of hand-lancing methods.
• The Bundle Shell Side Cleaner, which MPW used on-site, saved the customer over $47,000 versus the cost of sending the exchanger offsite to be cleaned.