How to Clean a Steam Turbine
- 1). Take the machine out of operation. As with any industrial machinery maintenance procedure, the very first thing that must be done when you're cleaning a steam turbine is a lockout process. All power to the turbine must be cut off and any means of restarting the turbine completely impaired until the machine is cleaned. Any tags that you have to apply to the machine, as well as any on-switch inhibitors, must be put in place at this point, and the person that applied them should be the only person allowed to remove them after the job is done.
- 2). Determine if the impurities in the water that flows through the turbine system are salt-based or soluble. If the impurities are water soluble, water cleaning is the appropriate method to use in most cases. You can clean the turbine blades and the head of the turbine with lukewarm water and a soft detergent along with a scrubbing brush. Make sure to contain the amount of water that you use when cleaning and don't flood the system, especially in situations where the only medium intended to pass the turbine in the system is steam.
- 3). Use abrasive cleaning methods if the pollutants on the turbine blades do not come clean with warm water and soap. The insoluble materials must be removed through the use of a soft grit abrasive or fine sand. These are usually used in conjunction with a pressurized tank system, commonly referred to as "sandblasting." These materials must be completely removed from the turbine after the cleaning before the turbine can be re-powered.
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