EP2586540B1 - Flushing System - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a flushing device for cleaning a fluid system.

Many industrial processes require elevated temperatures or high temperatures. By adding a coolant, these temperatures are regulated or the process is cooled. Examples of this are molds for injection molding machines, which generally have fluid channels for tempering the tools. Also, heat exchangers, such as Pipe, plate or spiral heat exchangers are within the meaning of the preamble such fluid systems.

Depending on the period of use, the chemical and / or biological contamination of the aqueous cooling agents used for tempering contaminates the liquid-wetted surfaces of the fluid system with the serious disadvantage of a poor temperature control, due to the poor heat transfer.

A variety of publications describe the physical or chemical self-cleaning of the coolant. Depending on the process temperature, structure of the fluid system, flow velocity of the cooling fluid and type of cooling fluid, the physical or chemical self-cleaning is not very successful, even with regard to bacterial deposits.

In particular, expensive molds for injection molding machines can fail due to contaminated cooling holes, or considerably jeopardize process safety. The contamination of heat exchangers reduces their efficiency and also their process reliability.

DE 201 02 946 U1 discloses a device for cleaning a water and drinking line in the livestock industry. The device has a liquid container from which a so-called domestic water plant sucks in cleaning liquid, the domestic water plant adjusts a water pressure. This water pressure is displayed at the house waterworks by a manometer. Downstream of a subsequent non-return valve, a compressed-air line opens into the line carrying the cleaning fluid. The pressure of the air-water disinfectant mixture is then displayed on a manometer. This is followed by two ball valves downstream with connections to two water and drinking lines, which are to be cleaned. A backwash line leads at the end of the water and Tränkeleitungen back to the liquid container.

In the shockwashing machine of the US 2003/0051746 A1 opens a compressed air line in a recirculation line. In this case, two pressure measuring devices are provided in the compressed air line to monitor the pressure in this line. In the cleaning device of WO2005 / 105331 A1 the pressure within the pipes to be cleaned is monitored by arranging a pipe section with two valves on both sides of a pressure measuring device.

The present invention has for its object to provide a rinsing system for cleaning a fluid system that is structurally simple and avoids the above disadvantages.

This object is solved by the features of claim 1.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are characterized in the subclaims.

The system according to the invention is connected to the fluid system. Especially in stationary facilities such. Heat exchangers or heavy molds is advantageously used a mobile system with flexible flushing hoses. The rinsing system is first brought into spatial proximity of the fluid system and connected there by means of couplings.

A stationary installation is not excluded.

The plant includes in the basic version a rinsing tank or tank, a circulation pump, at least one non-return and another pressure-holding valve, and preferably a compressed air supply and a filter installed in the circulation circuit. Advantageously, the system is mounted on a mobile platform. For reasons of clarity, order and mobility, the rinsing tubes can be rolled up on castors with retraction.

For automatic dosing of cleaning agents, the system can be equipped with a simple dosing system, which consists of a Venturi pump, a
Conductivity and / or pH measurement and a connected cleaning concentrate can be extended.

If there is no dosing system, the tank is filled with a rinsing liquid consisting of a carrier liquid, e.g. Water and a proportioned rinse or preservative concentrate is filled.

Since these are usually aggressive, harmful cleaning fluids, a pressure hold by means of air or rinsing fluid is carried out at the beginning in order to avoid later leaks or disconnections.

Advantageously, during cleaning, air can be introduced into the cleaning circuit in a continuous or pulsed manner for the dissolution of crystalline residues in the fluid system. In addition, there is the possibility of thermal support of the cleaning process by a heater.

To complete a cleaning, it is advantageously possible to introduce a preservative into the rinsing tank, or to dry the fluid system by means of air, or else to convey an aerosol mixture into the fluid system. In this case, the spent flushing liquid can be conveyed by the introduced air from the fluid system and the connected lines back into the tank to use them again by means of a treatment system, or to promote in a treatment tank or simply discard it in a drain.

The plant is advantageously combined with both a water treatment plant, as well as with a plant for the treatment of spent rinse liquid.

The system of the invention is easy to use and hygienic. For this purpose, the flexible connections can be plugged after cleaning to a parking station.

Thus, this plant not only meets economic, but also environmentally friendly claims.

FIG. 1 shows a fully equipped cleaning system, which is connected via the connection (1), the water inlet valve (2) and the flow meter or water meter (3) to a water supply or not shown here water treatment system. The conditioning filter (32) with its components is shown as a possible option for clarity.

The supplied liquid flows into the washing container (4) until the flow meter (3) or also the level sensors (5) signal the end of the feed. By means of circulation pump (9), the liquid is conveyed through the flushing line (8), which has two line sections (8a) and (8b). The circulation pump (9) can be used both air and electrically operated. Before starting the cleaning of the fluid system (20), all connections of the system can be physically or chemically cleaned. This is possible both via the heater (11) and via an ozone cell or flushing concentrate (29), not shown here.

Before the start of the cleaning of the fluid system (20), all connections of the system but in particular the couplings (28) of the flushing hoses (19) are subjected to a pressure-holding test. For this purpose, valve (31) is closed, the pressure-controlled air supply (17) opened and briefly put pressure on the compounds. If the valve (10) is not a check valve - as is preferred - but a normal shut-off valve, this is also closed. If the pressure drop monitored by the pressure measurement (16) remains within a specified limit, the connections are considered tight. The pressure holding test can also be carried out with liquid. For this is filled tank (4) the Pump (9) started briefly, the valve (31) remains closed. The pressure holding test is monitored by means of pressure measurement (16).
With manual dosing, the desired amount of liquid is supplied to the tank (4) either via the lid (7) or the downstream flushing hose (19) until the mark at marking (42) is reached. Thereafter, the rinsing concentrate is added manually.

The dosing of the rinsing concentrate takes place in a system with dosing system via a venturi pump (24) and the opened concentrate valve (25). The aspiration process is monitored by conductivity and / or pH measurement and is terminated when a predetermined concentration has been reached.

For cleaning the fluid system (20), the flushing hoses (19) with the couplings (28) are coupled to the connections of the fluid system (20). Depending on the spatial distance to the fluid system (20), the rinsing tubes (19) are rolled up on rollers with retraction (45) and are pulled out of the rinsing system for connection or automatically rolled up after use and, if necessary, put on the parking station (18).

The pump (9) circulates the rinsing liquid out of the container (4) via the fluid system (20), the filter (21) into the rinsing line (8). Detached particles remain in the filter (21) and must be rinsed cyclically by means of a filter rinse valve (22).

To increase the delivery pressure or the delivery volume, it is possible to increase the air pressure at the pump drive in the case of air-operated pump drives. For electrically operated drives, the check valve (15) can be opened manually for this purpose.

To increase the cleaning efficiency due to cavitation in the fluid system (20), it is also possible to supply air, also of different pressures, via the air connection (17) continuously or cyclically.

After completion of a cleaning operation, the rinsing liquid can be emptied via the drain valve (14) or, if the treatment filter (32) is present, partially supplied to a regeneration tank. To empty the fluid system (20), the liquid is displaced from the fluid system (20) and the lines (19) by means of air.

With the desired preservation of the fluid system (20), a preservation with the preservation concentrate (27) can be carried out after cleaning and emptying of the container (4). This process is identical to the rinsing process. Both the cleaning concentrate (29) and the preservation concentrate container (27) can be provided with a fill level monitor (30).

If the flushing fluid is toxic, the water meters (3/37) can be used to verify fluid balance.

For fluid systems with volumes larger than the tank volume, it may be necessary to re-meter and separate the purge circuit (8) from the atmospheric pressure. For this tank overflow (6) is closed. When exceeding a given max. permissible system pressure at the measuring point (13), the drain valve (14) can be opened for pressure equalization.

In hygienically demanding applications, there is also the possibility of how FIG. 2 shows, use highly pure, residue-free liquid as a carrier liquid. For this purpose, the rinsing system is preferably connected to the connection (1) to a reverse osmosis. To further improve the water quality, it is possible to add additional treatment steps after reverse osmosis such as electrodeionization and / or additional filter stages.

This combined with a high-purity water treatment rinse system is hygienically demanding both for external and for internal cleaning Components can be used. The high-purity rinsing liquid is conveyed in this application to the cleaning material introduced into a high-purity fluid chamber (43). The supply of the cleaning fluid takes place via a sterile filter (38) whose functionality is tested by supplying air into the primary circuit (38a).

About a suction pump 41, the accumulating cleaning fluid is pumped out.

Since this embodiment is generally stationary installations, the treatment of the rinsing liquid preferably takes place by means of a dosing system according to the procedure already described FIG. 1 , <U> Legend </ u> 1. water supply Second Water inlet valve Third Flow meter / water meter 4th rinse tank 5th level sensor 6th Tank overflow with valve 7th filler cap 8th. flushing line 9th circulation pump 10 Valve, preferably check valve 11 Heating with temperature sensors 12 Conductivity and or pH measurement 13 pressure measurement 14 drain valve 15 check valve 16 pressure measurement 17 air supply 18 Tube Park Station 19 irrigation tubing 20 fluid system 21 strainer 22 Filterspülventil 23 drainage 24 venturi pump 25 concentrate valve 26 conservation valve 27 Preserving concentrate container 28 clutches 29 Spülkonzentratbehälter 30 empty detection 31 Valve 32 treatment filters 33 Überströmpumpe 34 flow resistance 35 bypass valve 36 retentate 37 Retentatwasseruhr 38 sterile filter 39 Sterile liquid feed 40 flushing system 41 suction Pump 42 tank marker 43 High purity fluid chamber 44 sterile filter 45 Hose reels with retraction

Claims (3)

1. A flushing apparatus for cleaning fluid systems with a flushing conduit (8), integrated into which are a flushing container (4) with a tank overflow, which may be closed when flushing liquid is added, and a circulation pump (9), wherein the flushing conduit includes two flushing conduit sections (8a, 8b), whose ends are connected to two flushing hoses (19), the ends of which are provided with couplings (28), which may be coupled to fluid passages of a fluid system so that the fluid passages are connected into a circulation circuit, wherein integrated into one flushing conduit section (8a) successively in the flow direction are the circulation pump (9), a valve (10), a branching off discharge valve (14) and a shutoff valve (15), followed by the junction with a compressed air conduit (17), wherein the discharge valve (14) can be opened for the purpose of pressure balancing when a predetermined maximum system pressure is exceeded at a measuring point (13), wherein a further valve (31) is integrated into the other flushing conduit section (8b) and wherein installed into one of the flushing conduit sections (8a, 8b) between the valves (15, 31) there is a pressure meter (16), which is adapted to subject the couplings to a pressure maintenance test by means of air or flushing liquid.
2. Flushing apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that a filter (21) is integrated into the circulation circuit conduit.
3. Flushing apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the circulation circuit conduit is provided with a device (24) for adding cleaning agent.

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