Reciprocating spray cleaning system for air-cooled heat exchangers

Abstract

A frame-mounted mobile cleaning system permanently positionable above or below the tube bundles of an air-cooled heat exchanger (ACHE) and in fluid communication with an external source of pressurized cleaning fluid includes a mobile transverse spray head assembly formed from a plurality of separate interchangeable fluid compartments, each fluid compartment having an inlet for receiving the pressurized cleaning fluid and a fluid discharge wall having at least one nozzle aligned with the longitudinal axes of the finned heat exchange tubes below or above, or elongated slot nozzles that are transverse to the axes of the finned tubes and that are configured to discharge a predetermined pattern of pressurized cleaning fluid onto and between the surfaces of the fins of the heat exchange tubes as the assembly is moved from one end of the ACHE tube bundles to the other.