Furnace availability varies greatly from plant to plant and impacts the production levels, more so for the plants that are furnace constrained.
5 Leading Causes of Furnace Outages
5 Leading Causes of Furnace Outages
- Radiant coils – carburization, stress/creep rupture are the leading causes followed by plugging, bowing/twisting and brittle fracture
- TLE cleaning – tube blockage
- Instrumentation
- TLE Repairs – contributing factors include water side corrosion, inlet tubesheet erosion, tube to tubesheet weld failure, gasket or seal failure
- Refractory repairs
- Technology selection – including severity, selectivity, flexibility
- Design approach, specifications and selection of components
- Operation approach and discipline
- Monitoring and process control
- Maintenance approach and discipline