Boiler Tube Leak Detection

The benefits of early tube leak detection include:

For Utilities – To prevent expensive secondary damage and unscheduled outages in boilers, feedwater heaters, headers, steam pipes and valves.

For Paper Mills – To prevent smelt water explosive reactions in recovery boilers.

For Process Plant – To provide early warning of leaks in steam pipes, valves and heat exchanges.

Patented Airborne Sensors: Lintvalve’s acoustic microphone is shock and vibration resistant and 30 to 50 times more sensitive than piezo-electric microphones. This sensitivity enables the system to locate even very small leaks and gives you the time you need to plan a proper course of action for repair.
Plate Microphone: Piezo-electric based sensors, which use the boiler wall as a diaphragm to convert airborne audio signals into acoustic signals. The Lintvalve system uses plate microphones in areas where ash or salt cake build-up prevents the use of microphones which require an open pathway.
Structure-Borne Sensors: Piezo-electric based sensors measure ultrasonic sound generated by leaks in the boiler structure. Especially effective in lower furnace water wall area where hot slag readily blocks open pathways to a microphone or shatter sprays produce high levels of audio noise.
The T96 System: Designed so that boiler side equipment outputs a totally filtered signal that may connect directly to one of the following: 1. The plant’s DCS, 2. A Lintvalve stand-alone industrial PC with display and remote monitoring option via modem, 3. Lintvalve computer linked to DCS.
Early warning of small tube leaks provides vital information that will increase plant safety and lead to increased boiler availability, reduced repair time and increased plant efficiency.