Method for treating vertical tubes in a chemical reactor

Abstract

A device and method for measuring the back pressure in chemical reactor tubes includes many automated features. Inflatable tube seals may be automatically inflated. The device may measure several tubes at once. It may transmit data electronically to a remote computer for analysis and graphic display.

1 . A method for controlling the quality of chemical reactor tube loading, comprising the steps of:
 measuring the back pressure in a plurality of chemical reactor tubes;   automatically associating the back pressure measurements with identifiers for the tubes for which the back pressure measurements were taken;   establishing a set of criteria for evaluating the pressure measurement data; and   using the established set of criteria to automatically evaluate the pressure measurement data and to automatically generate a list of the tubes to be fixed based on the established set of criteria.   
     
     
         2 . A method for controlling the quality of chemical reactor tube loading as recited in  claim 1 , and further comprising the step of prioritizing the tubes on the list to be fixed based on the established set of criteria. 
     
     
         3 . A method for controlling the quality of chemical reactor tube loading as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the set of criteria for evaluating the pressure measurement data is based on a statistical analysis of the pressure measurement data. 
     
     
         4 . A method for controlling the quality of chemical reactor tube loading as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the set of criteria includes costs. 
     
     
         5 . A method for controlling the quality of chemical reactor tube loading as recited in  claim 1 , and further comprising the steps of measuring the ambient temperature as the back pressure measurements are being taken and of applying correction factors to the back pressure measurements to account for changes in said ambient temperature. 
     
     
         6 . A method for controlling the quality of chemical reactor tube loading as recited in  claim 1 , and further comprising the steps of measuring the supply temperature as the back pressure measurements are being taken and of applying correction factors to the back pressure measurements to account for changes in supply temperature.