Heat-exchanger Cleaner automation

<What have you done in the last 25 years?> - series.

What:

A preliminary study on the robotization of hydraulic pipe-bundle cleaners. For a more predictable cleaning-time and quality (lesser missing rows for large bundles) for KICMPI (process industry maintenance knowledge innovation center) a quick study was done on the robotization of a specific type of heat-exchanger cleaner. This type uses multi-lances to hydraulically-mechanically clean the internals of heat-exchangers pipes.

Why heat-exchanger cleaning?

During a maintenance shutdown in the petro-chemical industry, cleaning heat-exchangers plays an important role. These components transfer heat from one part of the process to the other. They are made up of long parallel pipes/bundles that can go up in the hundreds. These pipes tend to clog up what drops the thermal effectiveness. In the past these pipes were cleaned manually using water at potentially lethal pressures. Mechanized designs were created where the lances with nozzles on flexible hoses are positioned using hydraulic XY positioning. High pressure water cleaning these bundles, even inside the protected cabin of specially designed hydraulic machines is a specialised, dangerous and tiring job. Therefor it looked promising to robotize (parts of) this operation.

Result:

The study showed that renovation by automation of these machines is possible provided 2 main technical bottlenecks are solved: - Mechanical tolerances in the order of decimeters where accurate positioning requires mm’s: a sensory / control issue. - Only experienced operators have a predictable high cleaning-speed, miss less bundles and are smart at selecting optimal cleaning-orders: a smart order/route issue.

This resulted in two requirements:

- Accurately positioning the lances in front of the pipes by a robust measurement and position-control system. Deviations in the order of decimeters should be sensory-based controlled to get into the mm-range in a dirty, oily, water-spray environment.

- Calculating an optimal cleaning order to minimize time and maximizing the number of pipes cleaned automatically.

Prototype software to calculate an optimized cleaning order for multi-lances was invented/developed.

How:

From the experience on prototyping the focus was placed on the bottlenecks or hurdles; without solving show-stoppers further design is useless. Because there was no budget for this idea/study it was decided to select the optimal cleaning as an intellectual challenge. A picture of a bundle-plate was used that, after image-processing, formed the input of algorithms that resulted in a preliminary result. To test and improve the software-based-algorithms that were in-house designed and programmed, demo software was programmed that may eventually be used to demonstrate the results.

Now:

The project was halted because the supplier/manufacturer of the machine was not interested in this study and did not even considering developing an automated/robotised version of it in the near future. A recent glimpse into the software components shows promising optimization possibilities (the mind and hands are itching). It is a fact that there is a growing interest in AI and/or robotization and a shrinking of an experienced aging workforce. This awareness however appeared to not have reached this traditional market yet.

Conclusion:

A study, even a preliminary one, that is not backed by the supplier/manufacturer of mechanical devices for robotizing will always be fruitless. When a software engineering company invents algorithms to automatically calculate optimal cleaning orders from an image (without any use of AI or machine-learning) and the fact that the market is not even interested proves to me that there is an unwillingness to invest in modern (robotic) technology outside of this hydraulic/mechanical machine-building world. Perhaps these guys wait for a computer and sensors running on hydraulics, steam, air or water. They will have to wait, man never knows what the future might bring …

Fact is that a disillusioned designer/inventor is created.

Call for action:

Companies interested in me, the project or the stories about it are welcome to contact me.