Leakages and Scaling in Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers
The purpose of the article is to explain causes of non-corrosive and corrosive leaks in heat exchangers (HE) during standard exploitation as well as to present prevention measures to eliminate dangerous clogging by scaling and corrosion. The heat exchangers are made of Cr-Ni austenitic steels, belonging to the group of steels resistant to corrosion, called commonly stainless steels. The author of the article has over 40 years of practical experience in the areas of water treatment, corrosion and leaks prevention, as well as heat exchangers chemical cleaning. This part of the article focuses on various cases of heat exchanger leakages, while part two is a compendium on correct selection of technologies and chemicals for removal of scales from polluted heat exchangers. One will not find in the paper neither HE producer name nor industrial chemical cleaning formulas. The present paper describes reasons of leakages, examples of stainless steel HE corrosion and general characteristic of scales within HE.