Method for monitoring a tube sheet of a heat exchanger
AssigneeArkema Inc.
InventorsMichael S. DeCourcy, Kishlay Tripathy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Shell-and-tube devices typically require regular maintenance. Described herein is an automated method for tracking the status of individual tubes during maintenance activities and recording status data for review and analysis. Status data may optionally be reported in real-time summary format and/or used to predict time-to-completion. The method minimizes omission errors and helps to reduce the expense of performing maintenance activities in shell-and-tube devices, including shell-and-tube reactors and heat exchangers.
Claims19
A method for monitoring a status of a shell and tube device during a particulate catalyst loading activity, the shell and tube device comprising a tube sheet comprising a plurality of tube ends arranged in a fixed pattern of rows (R) and columns (C), said method comprising the steps of:
- a) placing a plurality of plugging plates on said tube sheet such that all of the plurality of tube ends are covered, each of the plurality of plugging plates comprising a disk recess for installing a colored indicator disk,
- b) assigning a unique identifier to each of said plurality of plugging plates,
- c) installing a plurality of colored indicator disks in the disk recesses, said plurality of colored indicator disks including at least one disk having a first color and at least one disk having a second color that is different than the first color,
- d) positioning at least one digital camera such that at least a portion of the plurality of plugging plates lie within a field of view of the at least one digital camera,
- e) acquiring an initial digital image (Di) of at least the portion of the plurality of plugging plates at an initial acquisition time (Ti),
- f) determining an initial color of each of the plurality of colored indicator disks within said initial digital image (Di), and
- g) creating an initial data record in a relational database for each of the plurality of plugging plates within said initial digital image (Di), said data record including:
- i. the initial acquisition time (Ti),
- ii. the unique identifier for the plugging plate, and
- iii. the initial color for the colored disk at the initial acquisition time (Ti).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.