Tube cleaning

For the article about the tube cleaning of steam locomotive boilers see: Tube cleaning (locomotive).

Tube cleaning describes the activity of, or device for, the cleaning and maintenance of fouled tubes.

The need for cleaning arises because the that is transported through the tubes may cause deposits and finally even . In system engineering and in industry, particular demands are placed upon surface roughness or heat transfer. In the food and pharmaceutical industries as well as in medical technology, the requirements are germproofness, and that the tubes are free from foreign matter, for example after the installation of the tube or after a change of product. Another trouble source may be corrosion due to deposits which may also cause tube failure.

Depending on application, conveying medium and tube material, the following methods of tube cleaning are available:

In medical field, "lost" tubes are tubes which have to be replaced after single use. This is not genuine tube cleaning in the proper sense and is very often applied in the medical sector, for instance with cannulas of syringes, infusion needles or medical appliances, such as kidney machines at dialysis. The reasons for the single use are primarily the elimination of infection risks but also the fact that cleaning would be very expensive and, particularly with cheap mass products, out of all proportion in terms of cost. Single use is therefore common practice with tubes of up to 20 mm diameter. For the same reasons as in the medical sector, single use may also be applicable in the food and pharmaceutical process technology, however in these sectors the tube diameters may exceed 20 mm.

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