Challenge
A university built two new chiller plants, one on each side of campus, with eight heat exchangers housed in each building — sixteen 50" face units in all. The buildings were new; the heat exchangers were not. Years of service had already left the carbon-steel water boxes, end covers, and tube sheet faces corroded, with dissimilar metals and high-velocity cooling water continuing to drive galvanic corrosion and erosion-corrosion. Moving that condition into two brand-new plants would have meant rebuilding tube sheets and covers not long after start-up.
Belzona Solution
Rumford Industrial Group specified a protective coating program carried out on all sixteen exchangers before the new plants went into service. Every water box, end cover, and tube sheet face was grit blasted back to clean metal with a sound angular profile, then coated with two coats of Belzona 1341 (Supermetalglide) — a gray base coat followed by a blue top coat so full coverage is visually verifiable. Doors (end covers) were prepared and coated separately from the internals, allowing both halves of each unit to be worked in parallel.
- Belzona 1341 (Supermetalglide)
Result
Sixteen existing heat exchangers entered the two new plants with an insulating, erosion-resistant barrier between dissimilar metals, halting the corrosion already under way instead of carrying it forward. The smooth, hydrophobic Belzona 1341 surface also reduces turbulence and helps restore and preserve operating efficiency over the remaining life of the equipment.
Project Photos
