Dry Cooler Repair

Dry Cooler Repair Case Study

...to understand

A request was received for urgent assistance to assess & remedy leakages in a bank of dry air adiabatic coolers.
The customer was appreciative that we were able to commit to a next-day site visit.
Visual inspection of 3 large coolers, each 6.5m in length, 3m in width and 2.4m high revealed multiple pipework fractures in each of the 18 coil sections.
The extensive nature of the pipework fracturing was indicative of internal liquid freezing.
Discussions with the operations team revealed that pure water ran through the cooler tubes and because a glycol additive could not be utilized, an alternative automated frost protection control measure was in place. Examination confirmed that this had failed.
It was strongly suspected by the visual damage to the outside of the coils that this would be replicated throughout the units and that on-site repairs were not feasible.

...to solve

The 3 large 2.5 tonne units were uplifted and transported to the Turnbull & Scott manufacturing facility in Hawick.
The 12 fans on each unit were carefully removed to gain access to the damaged coils which were then stripped down revealing the full extent of the damage.
It was confirmed at this stage that due to the extensive damage, all 6 heat exchanger coils in each of the 3 coolers would need to be replaced.
The design engineers and operations team carefully measured every aspect of each CuAl coil from the fin lengths and spacings to the headers, casing components and the Cu manifolds.
Autocad design drawings were created for the coils, pipework and manifolds and subsequently approved for manufacture.

...to deliver

The manufacture and testing of 18 coils and connection manifolds was undertaken.
The coils were re-installed and connected up with the manifolds and finally the fans were put in place and connected to in full communication with the control panels.
The units were shipped back to the distillery for re-installation by the on-site engineering team.
…..but the job was not quite done! It was realised that during the period of disconnection the on-site connecting pipework had sagged and new manifolds were urgently required to complete the installation.
Turnbull & Scott engineers were on site within hours and measured up. Within a working day transition pieces were manufactured and delivered….now the job was finally done.

"I was very grateful for the quick response time from Turnbull & Scott and the pleased with the service we got. Based on our experience, we will look to work together again in the future.”

Distillery General Manager