Sootblowers with long travel develop a considerable bending of the unilaterally attached lance tube and this increases to a disproportionately large extent with increasing travelling routes. Due to the rotation and/or oscillation of the lance tube this leads to excessive mechanical loading. Furthermore the distance to the heat exchanger packs decreases, an effect which neither the boiler manufacturer not the boiler operator want.


Sketch 1

To solve this problem Clyde Bergemann has developed two alternative track adjustments:

• Droop correction in the track beam
  
• Droop correction by means of a shiftable face plate

By adjustment in the track beam as well as with the procedure of the shiftable face plate the lance tube is purposefully guided close to the optimum centre line. The marginal parameters of the droop control are individually and computer-assisted determined for each application.

• The mechanical loading of the critical sootblower components is reduced whereby travelling routes of up to 18 m are realized.
  
• The distance between nozzle and heat exchanger surface remains almost constant and the critical distance to the heat exchanger packs is maintained. This results in a considerably regular admission of cleaning steam to the heating surfaces.
  
• The distances between the packs can be reduced to a minimum by the controlled low deviation of the lance tube which results in decisive technical and economical advantages for the plant designer.

In this way it becomes clear that Clyde Bergemann long retractable sootblowers with integrated track control is the technically optimum solution for applications with long travels. Decisive economic advantages result for the system engineer from minimising of the lane height, uniform cleaning efficiency and realisation of long travels.