Pipe Cleaning with a “twist”
Hydroblast can clean pipes of every size, length, inside diameter and shape but I thought I just had to write about this recent project . What you are now about to read is true and not made up or embellished in any way.
This week, we received a phone call from a rather anxious customer, who shall remain nameless. When you read on, you will understand why.
He asked if we did Pipe Cleaning and when we affirmed that we did, he followed up with “what price do you charge – and when can you come?”
He explained that they had a massive Industrial Hydraulic Press and someone had poured one tonne of glue into its reservoir tank, instead of hydraulic oil!
The customer had spent 4 days taking the machine to pieces, 7 days to log and record all the parts and then wondered what to do next. This had been when they’d called Hydroblast.
Cleaning Up a Sticky Problem
When the Hydroblast team arrived there more than a 1,000 pipes to clean, all of various lengths, with inside diameters ranging from 1″ – 4″, some straight pipes, some swept bends, some 90 degree bends, valves, flanges… you name it, it was there and they all needed cleaning and ridding of glue.
The customer’s machine, costing Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds Sterling, was not in production and was in pieces, with glue inside all of the hydraulic pipes. Every day the machine was laid up was costing Thousands of Pounds in lost production and profits. As Pipe Cleaning stories go, you could not have made this one up.
Hydroblast tackled the job in 1 day, running two high pressure water jetting machines. One machine was running at 1200 bar pressure, 40 litres per minute, using Flexi-lances and various spinning nozzles, whilst the other water jetting machine was running at 500 bar pressure, 30 litres per minute and at 98 degrees heat, At the end of the day, all the pipes were cleaned and carefully stacked away, ready for collection.
The machine is now up and running, in full production, back earning profits and the customer is happy, if somewhat chastened. What challenge will the Hydroblast team face next, we wonder?
If you have an interesting or unusual issue that requires skilled ultra high pressure water jetting experts, contact us now for help.