Improvements in and relating to Process of Cleaning the Inside of Surface Condenser Tubes.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Apr., 1898 -Accepted, 9th July, 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Process of Cleaning the Inside of
Surface Condenser Tubes.
I, THEODORE SAUNDERS, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at
206, White Street, in the Town of Danbury, County of Fairfield, and State of
Connecticut, United States of America, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
-
My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in the process
of removing the incrustation or scale which forms within the tubes of surface
condensers for steam engines, and has for its object to cleanse the tubes from all
foreign substance quickly and efficiently, and without in the slightest degree
injuring the tubes or roughening the interior surface thereof.
With these ends in view my invention consists in certain details of construction
and manner of operation hereinafter fully set forth and then specifically designated
by the claims.
The accompanying drawing which forms a part of this application illustrates
an elevation partly in section and partly broken away, of an approved style of
surface condenser, with my improvement shown in attachment therewith, in solid
lines, while in dotted lines I have illustrated a modification of my improvement.
My invention aims to remove the scale or incrustation from the inside of the
condenser tubes without removing them from the condenser, and I accomplish this
in a comparatively short space of time, not to exceed ten hours in the instance of
the largest condensers.
Heretofore this scale or incrustation has been removed by boring out the tubes
at great expenditure of money and loss of time, but my invention provides for
cleaning the inside of the tubes without any boring and without removing them
from the tube sheets, and, as I said before, this consumes at the outside only about
ten hours, which is a remarkable saving of time, as compared with the several
weeks required for boring out the tubes by the old process, and, moreover, my
improvement does not cost half as much as the boring process, and this does not
take into consideration the value of the time saved to the ship. Moreover, by the
use of my process the tubes are left absolutely clean without injury, whereas by
the boring process it is impossible to take out all the scale, since the boring auger
cannot be quite accurate, especially in long tubes, and consequently the auger
will run into the sides of the tube, thereby damaging them, which damage is some-
times so serious as to impair the efficiency of the condenser, and render new tubes
absolutely necessary. Also in removing and replacing the tubes it often happens
that the tube heads of the condenser are cracked or warped and have to be replaced
at additional cost.
The tubes are made of soft metal and with an inside finish, and in the boring
process the auger scrapes the finish off and leaves the surface rough, and this
roughness affords a secure anchorage for the scale, which latter thus forms much
more quickly than it did originally when the tubes were new.
It is a well known fact that in most cases it is extremely difficult to get the tubes

page_text: out of a condenser, since the bulk heads have to be taken down or cut to make
room for the taking out of the tubes, and in most instances the tubes cannot be
cleaned while the ships are in service, and this entails great loss to the owners of
the ships since the condensers cannot condense the steam as fast as they could
thereby making a back pressure on the engine, so that the ship loses the speed that
she should attain.
Attempts have heretofore been made to clean these tubes by means of solvents,
but in such instances the tubes have generally been removed from the tube sheets,
thus rendering the operation a long and expensive one, besides rendering it well
nigh impossible to uniformly clean the tubes.
i is the casing or shell of the condenser, 2 the tube sheets fixed therein, 3, 4, the
two series of tubes through which the water passes, 5 the water inlet, 6 the water
outlet, the horizontal partition which divides one water head end of the con-
denser beyond the adjacent tube sheet so that the water is forced to pass through
one series of tubes up and out through the other series of such tubes, 8 the steam
inlet and 9 the condensed steam outlet.
The construction above described constitutes a well known and approved form
of surface condenser, and of course forms no part of my present invention.
Since these surface condensers are not by any means small affairs but are of
rather large dimensions the spaces between the end walls of the condenser and the
tube sheets and which constitute the water heads are quite large, and are capable
of holding a great many gallons, and therefore I have provided vertical partitions
within the head at the farther end of the condenser and within each
of the separate compartments of the head where the inlet and outlet
for the water are provided, which partitions are bowed outwardly toward the end
walls of the condenser and enclose the entire surfaces of the tube sheets and are
backed by inflated rubber bags.
10 is a vertical partition which divides the head at the farther end of the con-
denser and which encloses the entire tube sheet at that end, and 11 and 12, are,
respectively, vertical partitions which are within the separate compartments that
respectively communicate with the inlet and outlet for the water at the other head
of the condenser, these two partitions enclosing the portions of the tube sheet which
bound said compartments and being provided with openings a, b, leading to the
tubes.
13 is a properly shaped rubber bag within one head of the condenser and
between the end wall thereof and said partition 10, which bag when inflated with
air will fill this space and closely conform to and press against this partition so
as to substantially render water-tight the space between this partition and the
adjacent tube sheet, and 14, 15, are similar but smaller rubber bags within the
separate compartments formed by the partition 7 and between the end wall of
the head and the partitions 11, 12, which bags when inflated with air will likewise fill
up these compartments and press firmly against said partitions and render sub-
stantially water-tight the spaces between said partitions and the adjacent tube
sheet.
A
16 is any suitable tank supported on the usual grating above the condenser,
and 17 is a similar tank resting on the floor near the base of the condenser.
suitable solvent, whose character will of course be changed according to the nature
of the incrustation or scale inside the tubes, is contained in the upper tank and a
pipe 18 leads down from this tank and projects through the water inlet, and this
solvent will flow by gravity down through the lower series of tubes into the space
at the other end of the condenser between the tube sheet and the partition 10,
and thence through the upper series of tubes into the upper compartment space
near the water outlet and then down through any suitable pipe 19 into the tank 17.
20 is any suitable pump by means of which the solvent is elevated through a
pipe 21 from the lower tank into the upper tank.
Connections may of course be made with this pump, as shown in dotted lines
at 22, whereby the solvent may be forced up through the series of tubes, instead

page_text: of utilizing the gravity fall of the solvent, and I therefore do not wish to be limited
in this respect, the gist of my invention resting in the broad idea of driving the
solvent up through the entire series of tubes simultaneously behind the gases which
naturally form in, without removing such tubes from the tube sheets.
In utilizing my improvement, I take off the heads of the condenser, put in the
inflated rubber bags and partitions and then replace such heads. But I do not
wish to be limited to the use of these partitions and rubber bags, since they merely
contract the space in the water heads of the condenser whereby I am enabled to
save considerable of the solvent, and I am therefore enabled to clean the tubes
without removing the condenser heads and without the use of such bags and
partitions.
It will be observed that in using my improvement, there will be a continuous
current of the solvent simultaneously through the lower series of tubes, and thence
up through the upper series of tubes, and thence down into the lower tank, and it
will also be noted that the gases will form ahead of the solvent so that they will
not resist the flow of such solvent.
I am also enabled to clean the tubes singly, or several at a time, by simply pro-
viding funnel devices leading into the tubes to be cleaned, and properly con-
necting the tubes at the rear end of the condenser, and then pouring the solvent
into these funnels, but the cleaning of any number of tubes less than the whole
number is a mere matter of details and provisions perfectly obvious to any one
familiar with my invention. For instance, all the pipes that are not to be cleaned
at a particular time may be tightly corked, and the corks removed and placed in
other tubes from time to time as occasion may demand.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim, is:
1. The process of removing the incrustation or scale from the inside of the
tubes of surface condensers for steam engines without removing said tubes, which
consists in leading a liquid solvent through the water inlet into and through the
tubes, and thence out through the water outlet, substantially as set forth.
2. The process of removing the incrustation or scale from the inside of the tubes
of surface condensers for steam engines, which consists in forcing a liquid solvent
simultaneously through the entire lower series of tubes and thence simultaneously
through the entire upper series of tubes, substantially as set forth.
3. The process of removing the incrustation or scale from the inside of the tubes
of surface condensers for steam engines, which consists in forcing a liquid through
the water inlet simultaneously through the lower series of tubes, and then simul-
taneously through the upper series of tubes out through the water outlet and
down into any suitable receiving tank, substantially as set forth.
4. The process of removing the incrustation or scale from the inside of the
tubes of surface condensers for steam engines, which consists in forcing a suitable
solvent into the water inlet head and out through the water outlet head into any
suitable tank, whereby said solvent simultaneously passes through the entire
series of tubes in the condenser, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 25th day of Anril 1808
JENSEN & SON,
77, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agents.