Koltso-Energo

• Acoustic Antiscale Device (AAD)
  is a device designed for protection of industrial heat-exchange equipment against scale and other hard deposits. This website deals with «Acoustic-T» Acoustic Antiscale Devices produced by our enterprise KOLTSO-ENERGO, LLC, Moscow.
  
  
• Water Conditioning
  the same as desalinization or chemical water treatment (CWT), is a package of measures for eliminating salts and gases dissolved in water and making its condition close to distilled water. This is a complicated and expensive process to be executed by qualified personnel. Water Conditioning is required in high energy applications, but it is gradually expulsed from low energy applications by physical methods of controlling scale that require neither maintenance, nor consumables, in particular by ultrasonic devices «Acoustic-T».
  
  
• Hard water
  Water with high concentration of salts (over 3mg/eq.-l) settleable as crystalline solids when heated. (see. Scale)
  
  
• Ultrasonic Source
  see. Magnetostrictive transducer
  
  
• Acoustic Pulse
  Traveling sonic wave exhibiting a short-term jump-in pressure. In «Acoustic-T» devices, ultrasonic vibrations supplied to a protected assembly are packed in successive rectangular-shaped pulses of 6Hz frequency. These particular pulses are the reason for typical gentle chirping of operating «Acoustic-T» devices.
  
  
• Return Band
  This is a D-ring bent pipe with flanges that connects horizontal sections (barrels) of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. Return Band is the place where an ultrasonic transducer must not be welded.
  
  
• Calcium Carbonate
  CaCO₃ is calcium salt of carbonic acid representing the basic scale component formed during hard water heating.
  
  
• Koltso-energo, LLC
  The Company, which designs and manufactures «Acoustic-T» series acoustic antiscale devices.
  
  
• Magnetostrictive Transducer
  он же ультразвуковой преобразователь
  Magnetostrictive Transducer is a device that converts electromagnetic oscillations into mechanical vibrations. Electromagnetic oscillations with the frequency above 15kHz are converted to acoustic (mechanical) vibrations of the same (ultrasonic) frequency accordingly. These vibrations are commonly known as ultrasound. The magnetostrictive transducer operating principle is based on the physical effect known as magnetostriction representing the property of some iron, aluminum and other alloys to change their physical dimensions if affected by electromagnetic field. Magnetostriction is the particular reason for transducer humming familiar to everyone - as affected by alternate current, core plates vibrate and produce a specific deep tone at a frequency of 50Hz.
• Scale
  The older name of scale is limescale. It is of interest that in Chinese, in the word-for-word translation into Russian, it is called "water dirt".
  Scale is a solid crust, which covers metal of heat exchanger surface brought into contact with heated fluid. It is formed irrevocably when any water, except for distilled one, is heated up, and traditionally, is a great trouble for the energy sector and everywhere, where water is used as the heat-transfer fluid. Scale is generally composed of calcium carbonate with magnesium carbonate admixture, iron oxides, calcium sulfate (gypsum), silicon oxide (sand) and so on, depending on the particular location.
  
  The reason for scale formation is as follows. Carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide gases present in the atmosphere react with atmospheric moisture forming weak carbonic, sulfuric and sulfurous acid solutions. When precipitated with rain and penetrating into the soil, these acids react with oxides of calcium, magnesium, iron and many other metals present in the ground, and form water-soluble salts, e.g. carbonates, sulfates etc. The problem is in the following property of these salts: when heated up approximately to 50°С, they begin to crystallize and precipitate intensively forming a solid flinty settling on the heat exchanger surface that has 50-fold lower heat transfer capacity compared to metal. Poetically speaking, water does not want to be heated and protects itself against this making a heat insulation layer in a place, where it feels too hot.
  
  
• Heat Exchanger
  Globally speaking, this is an assembly, in which any hot substance gives up its heat to any cold substance. The immense number of heat exchangers of all kinds are used in industry, and there are thousands of them. Two types of heat exchangers, plate and shell-and-tube, are usually used in heat power engineering.
  
  Plate Heat Exchanger represents a “layer cake”, in which interbedded layers of a heat carrier and heated water contact with one another via thin ribbed stainless steel plates.
  
  Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger is a long cylindrical barrel, through which a bundle of brass or steel tubes passes, the so-called "tube bundle". In these tubes, heated up water, and in the barrel - heat carrier (hot water or steam), circulate. Sometimes, the reverse is true: heat carrier is in tubes, and heated up water is in the barrel. Modern heat exchangers have achieved perfection; however, their abilities are strongly reduced by scale formed on the heat-exchange surface.
  
  
• Tube Sheet.
  This is an element of shell-and-tube heat exchanger representing a steel disk with multiple holes. Tubes forming the tube bundle are rolled or welded into these holes. To avoid tube choking by scale, ultrasonic sources are welded to the tube sheet rim.
  
  
• Ultrasound
  Ultrasound represents elastic vibrations and waves with the frequency over 15kHz. High-frequency mechanical vibrations excited in any elastic medium, for instance, in a metal or fluid, cause peculiar physical effects that has provided their broad application in science and technology. You can read more about ultrasound here. Here you can read how ultrasound affects the heat exchange between heated up fluid and a metal.
  
  
• Ultrasonic Generator
  This is an electronic device that generates electromagnetic signal with a frequency necessary for excitation of ultrasonic vibrations. The generator is connected to ultrasonic transducers that convert a signal received into mechanical (acoustic) vibrations. The generator is the "head", and the source is "operatives".
  
  
• Physical methods for protection against scale
  Various protection methods against scale formation in the heat-exchange equipment without chemical treatment of heated up water, based on some physical effects. The most reliable technique among physical methods realized in AAD «Acoustic-T», is scale destruction using ultrasound.