Factair’s latest air scouring unit for cleaning water mains
Posted on 15th April 2020 at 08:27
Factair has recently manufactured this skid mounted PS400 for a customer in South America. Air scouring (also known as pipe scouring) is an extremely effective method of cleaning water mains, from 75mm to 3000mm diameter, with typical cleaning lengths ranging from 100 to 1,000 metres. Air Scouring works by using filtered ‘oil free’ compressed air, injected into the mains via a hydrant to propel a small volume of water at high velocity.
Air and water are ejected together with any suspended solids from a hydrant at the end of the length being cleaned. This system has the effect of achieving water velocities high enough to carry loose deposits in the water stream. The PS400 is used to treat and filter a compressed-air source to provide a clean source of air which is then introduced to the mains with the right proportion with water to form discrete slugs of water.
These are driven at high velocity by the compressed air and it is the slug flow that enables solids to remain suspended in the water over the long distances being cleaned.
Tagged as: Air scouring unit
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