Cost Affective Pipe Repairs with Accu-Freeze™
When making repairs to pipes, for example changing valves, it is common to have to drain down the entire system before the repairs can be made, which can lead to high disposal costs, loss of product and cost of time spent draining and disposing of the product.
To dramatically reduce these costs Accu-Freeze™ is available from the Pipestoppers® Division of Huntingdon Fusion Techniques HFT®.
Accu-Freeze™ is a Pipe Freezing System, which uses liquid nitrogen (LN2) to eliminate disposal of material and all associated costs by freezing stationary liquids in a selection of pipe or tubing.
Luke Keane, Technical Support for HFT® said: “The ice plug only forms beneath the Accu-Freeze™ coil wrap, jacket or aluminium clam jacket. The system is effective on 6 - 12" (150 to 300 mm) pipe or tube. The ice plug does not expand outside of the range of the jacket or coil.”
“The LN2 is then injected through the patented control system. Double plugs can be made too, for example on both sides of a valve that requires changing.”
The LN2 injections are automated which reduces the operators’ workload and the amount of LN2 consumed, keeping operating costs low. Accu-Freeze® can also be operated remotely, which makes it ideal for use inside ‘hot’ nuclear areas where personal exposure must be kept below certain limits.
The primary advantages of the patented Accu-Freeze™ System include:
- The ability to control the pipe wall temperature throughout the freeze process.
- No need to shut off and drain the entire system.
- Creating plugs capable of withstanding 138 bar in diameters up to 12” (300 mm).
- Remote operation, for use in danger areas.
Many plumbing and maintenance companies already switching to our Pipe Freezing Systems due to the significant cost savings attached to the avoidance of draining pipes and systems for repairs.
There is a short video clip showing a Liquid Nitrogen Cryoshell (Freeze Jacket), for making two ice plugs in a pipeline full of contaminated water. The ice plugs allowed a centerpiece to be removed for access purposes, while the two ends in the pipeline could be safely capped off by welding on a metal blanking piece.
With this fix, only the contaminated water in a short length of pipe, needed to be disposed of instead of the enormous volume in the whole pipe. The Freeze was made with an Accu-Freeze™ Pipe Freezing System. A full project description is available on request. https://youtu.be/_VZX79vVPW0