Industrial cleaning includes cleaning factories, warehouses, power plants, and related parts and equipment (vehicles, tanks, tubes, pipes, etc.). Industrial cleaning typically involves potentially hazardous wastes and contaminants.
High-pressure water jetting systems are a necessary tool in industrial cleaning applications. Such systems use a combination of water and compressed air to deliver streams or jets of water at extremely high rates of pressure.
Lower pressure levels can clean loose dirt, dust, and growths. On the other hand, higher pressures can scrape off paints, coatings, and dense growths to reveal the original substrate beneath.
Below are some of the various industrial cleaning applications that a high-pressure water jet pump can help you accomplish.
1. Cement Truck Cleaning
A concrete mixer truck is an expensive piece of equipment. A brand-new truck costs north of USD 190,000. A used truck could still cost you upwards of USD 60,000.
To extend the lifetime value of your concrete mixer truck, you must regularly maintain it. The barrel drum, in particular, needs careful and constant cleaning and attention.
You must clean it every time you empty it of concrete, and it must be clean before you refill it. You cannot let concrete build up inside the concrete drum.
But you can’t send off your truck for industrial cleaning services every time it is emptied. That would quickly eat at your profits. For truck cleaning to be cost-effective, you need to invest in your own high-pressure water jetting system.
You can’t get just any high-pressure water jet pump, either. You need something like the drumblaster system that cleans remaining cement, deposits, and debris from your cement truck’s drum barrel after every empty or before every refill. And it takes only five minutes.
2. Chemical Cleaning
Factories often have to deal with deposit build-ups in process equipment. Moreover, newly commissioned equipment can have mill scales, slags, grease, and other similar processing byproducts.
The same high-pressure water jetting system used for surface cleaning can be repurposed for the chemical cleaning of such equipment. Instead of jetting water onto your equipment, it will flush cleaning chemicals through your pipes and tubes.
Different equipment will have varying specifications and, as such, require various chemical cleaning attachments and pressure levels. For chemical cleaning, therefore, the high-pressure chemical pump system must be configured to specifications.
3. Drill Pipe Cleaning
Drill pipes used in borehole drilling are subject to enormous loads and severe working conditions. To keep them operating efficiently, the regular cleaning and maintenance of drill pipes are necessary.
For drill pipe cleaning, you need a drill pipe cleaning station outfitted with an ultra-high-pressure water jetting system, something that can produce around 40,000 psi of pressure. Ideally, your water jetting unit is configured to load and unload drill pipes automatically. Your personnel can keep track of and control the procedure from a control station.
Drill pipes may also have naturally occurring radioactive material or low specific activity contaminants. Therefore, your water jetting system must have run-off water containment protocols to prevent groundwater and air contamination.
4. Fuel Storage Tank Cleaning
Over time, fuel storage tanks can get rusted and corroded, especially given the nature of the chemicals stored inside them. They may also be contaminated by rain, water, and soil.
High-pressure water jetting systems can be used to clean and maintain fuel storage tanks, removing contaminants and rust. However, for this particular application, you will need a setup that will allow you to control the drill pipe cleaning procedure remotely. This will eliminate the need to expose personnel to hazardous materials.
The system must be capable of chemical spraying to disperse and loosen deposits then high-pressure water jetting to wash off the sludge.
5. Machinery and Washdown Cleaning
You must regularly clean equipment used in industrial processing and activities for quality control and preventive maintenance. Water jetting is a cost-effective and efficient way to keep your manufacturing and processing equipment clean.
The amount of pressure you need will depend on the type of equipment you need to clean. For washdown cleaning, you may need a simple low-pressure water cleaning system (below 5,000 psi). This is commonly known as power washing.
But everything depends on your specific needs. In any case, the following are the different types of water jetting methods according to intensity.
- Water cleaning (little to no pressure)
- Low-pressure water cleaning (<5,000 psi)
- High-pressure water cleaning (between 5,000 and 10,000 psi)
- Water jetting (>10,000 psi)
- High-pressure water jetting (30,000 psi)
- Ultra-high-pressure water jetting (>30,000 psi)
It would be great if your water jetting system would let you achieve varying levels of pressure through a simple conversion of the fluid end. However, if you have fixed water jetting requirements, you can get a high-pressure water jet pump that delivers the exact pressure you need.
6. Building Cleaning
Old building facades may require a fresh coat of waterproofing and paint, or floors may need a fresh coat of anti-skid. In such cases, you must first abrade old paints and coating to ensure the paint or coating you apply will adhere to the surface.
In some cases, the building might simply be very grimy and the walls full of soot. There may be moisture damage, foul odors, and other signs you need an immediate flooring replacement, and the building interiors may be full of mold, mildew, and other unhealthy growths.
You can use a high-pressure water jetting system to clean your building facade, walls, floors, and windows.
Different applications require different levels of pressure and different cleaning nozzles, however. You can’t clean glass windows using the same force you use on concrete walls. So, make sure you can easily change your water jet’s pressure through a simple fluid end conversion and alter its functionality through a simple switch in the accessories or attachments.
For convenience, choose a water jetting system you can easily transport so you can bring it wherever it is required.
High-Pressure Water Jetting for Easier Industrial Cleanups
High-pressure water jet pumps are highly versatile and have many industrial cleaning applications.
You can use them for simple water rinsing or ultra-high-pressure water jetting. Indeed, a high-pressure water jet pump will make an excellent investment if you need to regularly clean industrial equipment and buildings.
