FAQ

There's no standard figure. It mainly comes down to the number of tubes, the tube material, whether the tube ends are welded, site conditions and the outage window.

Before mobilizing, we build a schedule around these factors and align it with your outage plan; the contract sets the final dates. One reference point: at Sanbaimen Power Plant, Raoping, in 2009, expanding, trimming and welding nearly 40,000 titanium tubes on a 1,000 MW unit took 15 days.

Yes – all three appear in our project references. Titanium is typical at nuclear and coastal plants, stainless steel at inland thermal plants, and copper alloy on older units and some petrochemical and HVAC equipment.

Each material needs its own expansion and welding parameters, so we set the procedure from the tube specification and design requirements before work starts.

There's no single threshold. It depends on whether the exchanger still meets its duty with those tubes plugged, and whether the leaks are still increasing.

We can test and assess first; the choice between plugging, partial retubing and a full retube then follows the manufacturer's recommendations and your operating data.

Yes. Our tools for tube installation, expansion, trimming, tube-end welding and tube pulling are designed and built in-house, and several are patented.

We also sell the tools – see our product website.

No – it depends on the design. Many condensers only need expanded joints, while equipment with tighter sealing requirements, such as some nuclear and desalination plant, may specify welding after expansion.

Where welding is required, we use our in-house automatic tubesheet TIG welder (autogenous) or weld manually with filler wire.

Yes. If there are no obvious leaks and the loss of performance is down to fouling, cleaning comes first; the leak test results then show whether any tubes need plugging or replacing.

We choose the cleaning method – rotary flexible-shaft, projectile and so on – to suit the tube size, material and type of deposit.

Ideally: equipment type, tube material and size (OD, wall thickness, length), number of tubes, tubesheet material, whether the tube ends are welded, planned outage dates and site location.

Drawings or site photos help, so please attach them if you have them. If you don't have every detail yet, send what you have and one of our engineers will follow up.

Yes. We work all over China, and our project references span many provinces.

Overseas, our references include Lakvijaya Power Plant in Sri Lanka (2015) and a condenser retrofit in Myanmar (2024). Crew, visas and schedule for overseas work are agreed project by project.