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Improved Cooling Tower Maintenance: The Cool, Hard Facts

From Philadelphia Gear Corporation
 

 

Water & Wastewater International, November 2007 — Proper maintenance of cooling towers can be a dangerous, expensive and tedious undertaking. Here's some information on ways to make the process easier.

A cooling tower’s components are complex, often requiring unique capabilities for meeting environmental and operational challenges. The unit’s fan drive systems usually reside within the cooling tower assembly, high above ground level, complicating simple maintenance tasks for tower operators.

The tower’s driving fan blades, often exposed to the elements, frequently become covered with ice, intensifying workloads for commodity gear drives. Lip seals installed on the input and output shafts of these gear drives become susceptible to malfunction (e.g. extreme wear, leakage, gear and bearing breakdown) when they don’t remain well-lubricated. Lubricating these components regularly and observing any deterioration proves difficult for operators due to the systems’ locations at such extensive heights.

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LAKOS Separators and Filtration Systems - STS - Stainless Tank System
Sand Media Tanks engineered for the demands of applications on cooling towers, as well as open and closed loop system operations, down to 5-10 micron performance range as standard. (read more)
Schneider Electric, Automation & Control - Schneider Electric Introduces Altivar 21 for HVAC
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Caterpillar Inc., OEM Solutions Group - Hydraulic Fan Drives
Hydraulically driven cooling system - The same hydraulically driven cooling system passed down from big Cat® Wheel Loaders is featured in the Cat Multi Terrain Loaders. (read more)
Electro-Chemical Devices, Inc. - Model 2122 CTCS, Cooling Tower Control System
The Model 2122 CTCS is an integrated system, which controls acid feed, blowdown and inhibitor feed in cooling water processes. Acid feed is controlled via pH monitoring, blowdown is controlled via... (read more)
Noren Products, Inc. - Efficient Heat Exchanger for your NEMA Enclosures
NEMA cabinets are used for protection from the harsh environments encountered in many industries both indoor and outdoors. So, without some form of cooling or heat removal, problems occur with... (read more)
LAKOS Separators and Filtration Systems - HVAC Filtration Systems and Solutions
LAKOS has several Separators and packaged systems designed specifically for cooling tower basin filtration and to prevent heat exchanger fouling. (read more)
Sumitomo Machinery Corp. of America - Hyponic Gearmotor and Reducer
The Hyponic® features a compact modular housing, patented Hyponic gear technology, maintenance-free grease lubrication, high efficiency operation, and universal mounting. (read more)
 
Topics of Interest
Industrial WaterWorld June, 2002 — A new Universal Cooling Tower Drive (UCT) is meeting the challenge of replacing cooling tower drives and spare parts in record time. The standard drive... (Read More)
Cooling towers are a critical component in many power generation and chemical plants, and other process facilities. Catastrophic equipment failure can result in safety hazards, lowered production, and... (Read More)
Variable speed drives are seeing ever increasing usage as an efficient way to control process temperatures by varying the airflow of an air cooler or cooling tower. Car must be taken, however, to... (Read More)
Do you need more air out of your air cooler or cooling tower? Do you have increased process demands? Obsolete or inefficient fans? Stricter noise specifications? There are numerous reasons to consider... (Read More)
REFERENCES Brewer R, and McAuley PH. "The National Assessment Of Water Resources: Implications for the Cooling Tower Industry" Cooling Tower Institute Technical Paper 179-A, January, 1978. (Read More)