Tube Expansion Suppliers and the Tube Installation Tools You’ll Need
When people think about fitting tubes into a boiler or heat exchanger, they think of the expander. That’s the tool that seals each tube into the tube sheet, so it gets most of the attention. But ask anyone who’s done a retubing job, and they’ll tell you the expander is only part of it. There’s a lot of small work before and after. That’s where tube installation tools come in, and it’s why the right tube expansion suppliers matter more than you’d think. The Small Jobs Before A Tube Goes In Old tube sheet holes are rarely clean. There’s rust, scale and bits of the old tube stuck to the sides. If you push a new tube into a dirty hole, it won’t seal properly, however well you expand it. So the holes get cleaned first, usually with a wire brush made for the job. If a hole is slightly out of round or a bit worn, a reamer opens it up to the right size. Some joints also need small grooves cut inside the hole. When the tube is expanded, the metal pushes into those grooves and grips harder. A ...