Hepco will be attending and exhibiting at the 2018 Heat Exchanger Performance User Group Meeting 

Feb 5, 2018 – Feb 8, 2018 along with Hennigan Engineering Co.,Inc.

Sheraton Lake Buena Vista; 12205 S. Apopka Vineland Road; Orlando, Florida 32836.

The Annual Heat Exchanger Performance User Group (HXPUG) Meeting will be held in Orlando, Florida, February 5-8, 2018. The meeting is for nuclear industry personnel involved with performance and maintenance of heat exchangers. The meeting will consist of an all-day training session on Monday (HXPUG Funders Only). Tuesday and Wednesday will be open door sessions open to technology suppliers and HXPUG funders. Thursday will be a closed door session open to HXPUG funders only. Vendor Fair – In conjunction with the annual meeting, a Vendor Fair will be held on the evening of Tuesday (2/6/2018).

The 2018 Feedwater System Reliability Users Group (FSRUG) meeting will be held in Austin, Texas at the Hilton Austin, January 22-25, 2018.

Feedwater System  Reliability User’s Group Mission:

  • Reduce  the number of Feedwater System related plant trips and unplanned power reductions in the nuclear industry.
  • Identify and implement solutions to common industry equipment reliability problems in feedwater and support systems.
  • Provide the industry a forum for improving Feedwater System
    reliability and to share operating experience through online collaboration and annual meetings.
  • To share information related to Feedwater System component maintenance and improvements to improve system performance and reduce maintenance costs.

Come Visit Us!

Please join us August 22-24, 2017 in Birmingham Alabama for the Southern Company Generation Technical Conference.  We will be exhibiting at Booth #1228 on Wednesday and Thursday.  We look forward to seeing you there.

2017 Fossil/Hydro TechX Conference

Join us in Charlotte, NC on Monday August 28, 2017 – Thursday August 31, 2017

We will be at Booth #34

Topics will include; Next Generation of Combined Cycles, Emerging Technologies and New Maintenance Strategies.

Please join us at the EPRI Balance of Plant Symposium on Monday, July 31, 2017 – Wednesday, August 2, 2017 from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM at Hyatt Regency Indian Wells 44600 Indian Wells Ln Indian Wells, California 92210.

We will be in Booth #24

Topics of the Symposium will range from benefits of consistent eddy current testing, tube leak detection and extending tube life in shell and tube heat exchangers.

Please join us at the Lowes Minneapolis Hotel for the upcoming Condenser Technology Conference where we will be exhibiting at Booth #6.

Sessions include; Innovations in Performance Improvements and Technologies and Maintaining Steam Condensers.

convention-head

In addition to networking opportunities throughout the course of the venue, there will be several panel discussions; Energy Matters Series 1 through 5.

The Convention finishes off with a Gala dinner featuring guest speaker Mr. Tom Brokow.

2017 Condenser Technology Conference

  • Loews Minneapolis Hotel
  • 601 1st Avenue
  • Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403
  • USA
  • July 26, 2017 – July 27, 2017

https://www.epri.com/#/pages/event/C9186FA8-2BF3-4028-A8FB-F547953C7928

14th EPRI Balance-of-Plant Heat Exchanger Nondestructive Evaluation Symposium

  • Hyatt Regency Indian Wells
  • 44600 Indian Wells Ln
  • Indian Wells, California 92210
  • USA
  • July 31, 2017 – Aug. 2, 2017

https://www.epri.com/#/pages/event/068C767E-4CF4-47ED-ADDE-E59970DA659C

 

What an honor to be able to attend the Ameren 2017 Supplier Diversity Symposium at the Four Seasons in St.Louis Missouri last week.  With Networking events and Workshops such as; “Doing Business with Ameren” headed by 5 panelists from Ameren, and “Leveraging Tier 2 – Strategies for Doing Business with Ameren” with speaker Kevin Settle from J.F. Electric, it was an informative event.  Made even more special with celebrated speaker Clifton Taulbert; pulitzer nominated author, entrepreneur and businessman whose inspirational speech was a highlight of the program.

Thank you Ameren for your attention and dedication to helping the Diverse Suppliers of America!

Recently, there has been some bad press with regards to the use of expandable tube plugs in the Power Plant Industry.  So bad actually that Plants are opting to pay out 10 times as much, for a tube plug that is perfect for  high pressure applications but OVERKILL for low pressure, low temperature heat exchangers and condensers.

Most of the bad press is due to failures seen with the black neoprene rubber type expandable plugs.  These are plugs made with the black rubber seals along with inexpensive spacers.  For some jobs, these plugs may work just fine, especially short term because the cost is low.

The cost is on par with the price of the pound in/”driven” plugs, either the two pin or a single tapered brass pin.  These types of plugs, while they will do the job, have two disadvantages over their expandable counter parts.
One is the fact that as soon as you pound in any plug into a tube, you have already created a scenario where; the tube has now expanded from it’s original shape, has potentially created cracks in the tube sheet and if the tube was taken out of service for flow reasons or scheduled to be tested at a later date, will need to be drilled out of the tube.  That will cost the Plant downtime and money and still you are left with tubes that have been permanently damaged.

The plug market is a niche market and one that often gets ignored until there is a significant problem with the Plants condensers/heat exchangers.  Best to be armed with the FACTS.

Here are the FACTS:

  • There are only a few types of plugs; Pound in/”Driven” pins, Expandables, and Mechanical/Explosives.
  • Pound in/Driven and mechanical/explosive plugs cause damage to tubes/tube sheets and if need to be removed will cost money and downtime.
  • Black rubber seal expandable plugs will crack, break down and lose their seal due to heat and cycling overtime.

 

  • Silicone expandable plugs will never break down, will last indefinitely, will NOT cause damage to tubes/tubesheet and will NOT have to be drilled out to be removed.

 

While the silicone expandable tube plugs cost a bit more in the short term due to preferable materials, such as non-water soluble washers and collars in conjunction with high temp silicone. You get what you pay for with our Hepco tube plugs. Our expandable plugs will not only LAST in the long term but COST less in the long term as they won’t cause any damage to your condensers and will seal indefinitely.

So the bottom line is this; when you have condensers and heat exchangers that don’t need a high pressure/high temp application, the BEST solution for plugging these tubes is HEPCO expandable silicone tube plugs. 

 

c/o Director of R&D for Hepco