Patent ID: 6981422

Claim:
A method for conducting blow-down and differential pressure testing of the catalyst tubes of a tube and shell type catalytic reactor having an upper tube sheet and a multiplicity of reactor tubes each having the upper ends thereof extending downwardly from the upper tube sheet, comprising: providing at least one test probe defining a testing path having an air supply thereto and a restricted orifice therein and having a selectively activated blow-down path in communication with the air supply and by-passing the restricted orifice; establishing sealing of the test probe with a selected reactor tube; activating the blow-down path and injecting compressed air from the air supply into at least one reactor tube at a predetermined pressure and volume for reactor tube blow-down; de-activating the blow-down path and controllably injecting a pressurized gas through the orifice and into a reactor tube at a predetermined test pressure and volume determined by air supply pressure and by the restricted orifice; measuring the back-pressure of the reactor tube and developing an electronic signal representing the measured back-pressure; and recording the electronic signal representing the back-pressure measurement.