Last winter, outdoor process lines froze repeatedly. All of these lines had some sort of freeze protection. The ones of major concern were heat-traced. Two had steam heat-tracing, and the others had electrical heat tracing.
The freezing caused the complete shutdown of entire processes required for making product. Overall, the losses through winter resulted in a 20% reduction in output. The late orders and lost revenue are of particular concern to management and they want the problem fixed.
Troubleshooting a winter problem in April is tricky at best, but what are some things you should look at?
This is a real-life example. In this particular case, the problems were exacerbated by emergency measures aimed at thawing the pipes. To get at the pipes, techs removed the insulation but did not reinstall it properly. They frequently damaged the heat trace while using torches and high-temperature heat guns.
This past winter had some unusually cold weather, often for several days in a row. That kind of cold can exceed the design ability of the heat tracing system to keep pipes from freezing.
Most likely, this isn’t an equipment failure that needs troubleshooting. Instead of trying to figure out if some components were in degraded condition, focus on redesigning the system that prevents the freezing. Can you:
- Upgrade the insulation?
- Install a multi-stage heating system?
- Install wind-breaks?
- Add a circulating loop to keep fluids flowing?
- Move any part of the system to an indoor/heated area?
