SOOT blowers are used to keep combustion particles from sticking to boiler tube tanks in the boiler tower in oil, coal and multi-source fuel plants. They can be retractable or rotary and help to clean heating surfaces of boilers fired with ash producing fuels. Several soot blowers are usually found on each level of the boiler tower. Given the extreme operating environment, lubricating soot blowers and other boiler-cleaning machinery requires specialist products.
“The idea behind a soot blower is to create multiple impacts of high-pressure air, steam or water from opposing nozzle orifices at the end of a translating-rotating tube,” explains Callum Ford, National Marketing Manager at Lubrication Engineers (LE) South Africa. “A traveling lance with nozzle jets penetrates the narrow openings in the boiler tube banks and blasts the tubes clean. Having clean tubes is important for optimum boiler output and efficiency.”
He adds that ash-producing fuels cause a build-up of combustion by-products on other heating surfaces of the boiler, including ash and slag on the walls, screens, super heaters, re-heaters and economizers. Beyond soot-blowers, other important boiler cleaning equipment includes retractable water de-slaggers, gun blowers and water wall de-slaggers, and air heater cleaners. All of these, along with furnace probes, need to operate within extreme temperatures – an environment unsuitable for most traditional lubricants, which would burn, melt or coagulate.
“LE has specifically designed specifically a range of lubrication products for high-temperature, critical applications,” says Ford. “For example, LE’s 1250 Almasol High Temperature Lubricant is ideal for travelling carriage gearbox steam blowing in retractable soot-blowers, while our 1275 Almaplex Industrial Lubricant is the best solution for linkage fittings in air heater cleaners. We advise speaking to a lubrication technician to find out about the best product for the specific boiler-cleaning application, which will ultimately protect boilers and keep them operating at their best for as long as possible.”
LE’s product range also offers lubrication solutions for:
- Air heater cleaners: gearbox oil reservoirs and adapter gearings grease reservoirs
- Furnace probes: power pack gearbox oil reservoirs
- Retractable soot-blowers: air blowing (indoor and outdoor installations, air motor air-line lubricators, revolving roller assembly fittings and traversing and rotary gearboxes), oil reservoirs (indoor and outdoor applications, lance bearing fittings, main gearbox grease reservoir, power pack gearbox reservoirs), and motor adaptors (air, electric, grease reservoirs)
- Rotary blowers: air motor air-line lubricators, power pack gearbox reservoirs, cam follower fittings, reaction plate bearing fittings, miscellaneous linkages (hand oiled), power pack oil reservoirs, and switch gears grease reservoir
- Retractable water de-slaggers: traveling carriage gear case reservoirs
- Gun blowers and water wall de-slaggers: linkage grease fittings, rack housings (electrical), reservoirs, air motor air-line lubricators, and rotary gearboxes (air and electric)
