Cooling towers are vital pieces of equipment for a range of different businesses and industries. If your cooling tower were to fail, major consequences could affect your business and cause production to slow down and make the working atmosphere uncomfortable or unbearable for your workers. It's therefore very important to keep up with your cooling tower maintenance and repair. One of the most common parts to break or malfunction in a cooling tower is the water distribution system. In order to keep your water distributor in peak condition and prevent malfunction, there are a few things you should think about.
Clogged nozzles
If the water distribution system malfunctions, it will affect the water levels in your cooling tower, and with that also cause the cooling efficiency to decrease. The first thing you should check if your water distribution system seems to function poorly is the nozzles. It's quite common for the nozzles to become clogged with build up, especially if the mineral levels in the water you're using are high. This simple problem hinders the water from being distributed in the cooling tower and can also lead to too much pressure building up in the pipes, which can cause the entire system to fail. You should make sure to clean the nozzles regularly to prevent build up, and not just wait until they are actually starting to malfunction. This will lead to you not having to switch nozzles as often as you otherwise would, as the build up can break the material in the nozzles down even if you remove it quickly.
Bad pressure
If you're operating with a pressurised water distribution system, you also need to make sure that the water in the pipes is pressurised enough to keep the water pumping to the distribution system. Turn off the water and check the pipes transporting the pressurised water for cracks and rust. You need to turn it off, as pressurised water shooting through a small crack can injure you severely. If you can't find any signs of leakage, you should contact a professional. Pressurised environments are dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing, and it's also hard to tell the exact level of pressure your system would benefit the most from.
Uneven pipe
A last thing you can do to keep your water distribution system functioning properly is to check that the pipe where the nozzles are mounted is kept in a straight line inside the cooling tower. If any screws or fixtures have come loose, the pipe might be leaning, which means the water is distributed unevenly in the system. Replace the damaged screws and have your pipe straightened to prevent it from being unevenly worn and decrease the efficiency of your cooling tower by distributing more water than the cooling equipment can handle in just one part of the tower.
For more information, contact companies like Marley Flow Control Pty Ltd.
