Although working with corrosive materials can be challenging, it is often necessary to ensure that your company is able to efficiently perform its main functions. However, pumping highly corrosive materials can be hard on your company’s equipment, to the point that it can slow down production and lead to major repairs. That’s why it’s so important to put various protections in place to ensure that your equipment doesn’t suffer in the midst of doing what it’s designed to do.
Change the Temperature
One of the ways to change the corrosive properties of a particular chemical is to change its temperature. Therefore, if possible, it’s important to implement heaters or chillers in your production line to help protect your equipment. For example, if you’re dealing with a chemical that is less corrosive when it’s cold, you’ll want to include chillers at the beginning of the line and possibly one or two more chillers later on in the line to ensure the chemical stays cool.
Start with the Correct Equipment
An important part of preventing corrosion in your equipment is starting with equipment that is naturally resistant to corrosion. When considering liquid ring vacuum pumps, for example, it’s important that you look for pumps that are either made from chemical-resistant materials or that have a chemical-resistant coating inside. Although chemical-resistant equipment may be more expensive to obtain and install, it will pay major dividends in terms of lower maintenance demands and fewer equipment failures.
Retrofit Existing Equipment
If you already have newer equipment in place, it doesn’t make much financial sense to replace it with equipment that is resistant to corrosion. However, you can retrofit this equipment with corrosion-resistant coatings to help prolong the life of the equipment. Different options are available depending on the type of equipment you’re dealing with to ensure that your entire production system is able to be protected.
Choose Carefully
Something else to consider as you seek to reduce the corrosion in your equipment is the way in which various chemicals are routed. This is important to pay attention to because chemicals react differently to various metals. Therefore, if you pay attention to how the chemicals in your facility are routed, you may be able to route the chemicals in such a way as to avoid any corrosive reactions.
All About Safety
Ultimately, while preventing corrosion is a financial concern, it is ultimately a safety issue. Equipment that is heavily corroded cannot be depended on to operate safely on a daily basis. Therefore, for the sake of your company’s employees, it’s important to take steps to keep corrosion at a minimum.
