Jess Keopke
Utah Water Jet Consulting
Phone/Fax - (801) 731-7048
E-mail - JessKeopke@aol.com
I just wanted to take a moment to write you a short note to let you know
how much your product (SUPER-WATER®) has helped me and my customers over
the years. As you know, I have been using SUPER-WATER® since 1974 when you
first introduced it for use as a water-blasting additive. This product has
proven to be very valuable to me and my customers over the years. I thought you
may want to know where I have used it, and the successes that I've had by using
your product.
OIL REFINERIES:
Chevron Richmond Refinery
My first project where SUPER-WATER® proved to be very cost effective,
was when I used it for the cutting and removal of very hard scale deposits from
reactor bundles at the Isomax unit. The scale deposits were so hard, and seemed
to be fused to the tube surfaces. Chevron personnel, and outside contractors
had already spent thousands of dollars, and over 3 months trying to remove the
scale. They were unable to remove the scale deposits by using normal
water-blasting methods, and were about to order new replacement bundles that
would have cost Chevron hundreds of thousands of dollars, but were needed in
order to keep the Isomax unit operating. As a last resort, and I might say,
just in the nick of time, your product was being introduced to the industry for
use as a water-blasting additive that could cut very hard scales such as the
fused scale in the bundles at the Isomax unit. I was the first, and only
contractor at the time that had any experience in using your product, and was
called on to try it on the Isomax bundles. After a short period of operating
our equipment on the project, it was evident that SUPER-WATER® was doing
the job, and was doing it much faster than anyone had thought possible. We were
able to clean the tube-side, shell-side of the bundles in about 24 hours each.
Your product saved the day for my customer, and saved them hundreds of
thousands of dollars in replacement costs, and downtime.
Chevron Hawaii Refinery
After the success at the Chevron Richmond, California refinery, the word got
out to the other Chevron refineries. I soon found myself at Chevron's refinery
in Kapolei, Hawaii where they also had a problem with very hard silica deposits
in the tube-side of the exchanger bundles throughout the refinery. Chevron had
been unable to get the exchanger bundles clean since the refinery was built.
They were trying to cut the scale by using normal water-blasting equipment,
chemical cleaning, drilling, and the list goes on. None of the methods that
Chevron tried worked until I used your product ( SUPER-WATER®) to
water-blast the inside diameter of the tubes. I used the same contractor that
had been unable to cut the silica in the past, the same equipment, same method
and pressure, only I added SUPER-WATER® to the feed water supply to the
water-blasting unit. Again, it wasn't long after starting the project that we
could all see that SUPER-WATER® was doing a good job in cutting the silica.
This success with your product saved Chevron thousands of dollars in downtime,
heat transfer, and labor costs. Chevron cut some of the tubes in half in order
to inspect the results of our tests, and found the tubes to be clean, and
silica free.
Salt Lake City Refinery
I opened an industrial cleaning service business in Utah back in 1979, and
owe some of the success of that company to SUPER-WATER®. Chevron Salt Lake
was one of my first customers in the region, and was using other contractors to
perform the water-blasting work in the refinery at the time. I asked them to
give me a try, and to give me the hardest cleaning job in the refinery, one
that no other contractor was able to clean. They did, and it was a good test
for SUPER-WATER®, the bets were on that I could not cut what they had in
mind. The project turned out to be the cleaning of coke feed lines in the coker
unit. In the past, they could only get the lines clean by using intensive
labor, and the old rattling method. I was able to clean various size pipes that
had very hard coke build up, and I was able to clean them in about 24 hours
time by using SUPER-WATER®. The old method used to take about 7 to 8 days
to perform the same work, and cost Chevron a lot more money than the method I
used. After that, I was in the refinery on a regular basis, and Chevron was
giving me more and more work. Chevron Salt Lake Refinery turned out to be my
best customer in the region.
Space Program
In the summer of 1978, I had the opportunity to visit a company in Utah
that was the prime government contractor for building, and testing the Space
Shuttle Booster Rockets. The company had a washout facility that was setup to
refurbish the booster rockets for reuse after test firing, and later after the
shuttle orbiter was launched. The washout facility was a high tech automated
water blasting facility using high volume, high pressure water blasters to cut
the motor liners from the inside diameter of the rocket motors. I ran some test
using SUPER-WATER® to cut and remove the thick inner liner which was very
dense rubber like material. The material was anywhere from 5 inches to 1 inch
thick, and very time consuming, and hard to remove. I was able to cut the
rubber like material with one hand held control gun, and one nozzle twice as
fast as the automated system using three to four cutting heads. After that
test, I then tested SUPER-WATER® on several other motor parts, and was also
successful in cutting various types of materials such as carbon, fiberglass,
rubber, and epoxy based paints. All tests proved to be two to three times
faster in cutting, and removing these materials.
Nuclear Energy Industry:
Nuclear Power Plants
In 1988, I was contracted by Babcock & Wilcox of Toronto, Canada, for
demonstrating the use of SUPER-WATER®. The company was trying to find a way
to clean condensers that were being used in nuclear power plants. The
condensers were large diameter, very expensive, (over 80 million dollars each),
and were being used in most nuclear power plants around the world. The
condensers were designed with very tight tube patterns, which were almost
impossible to clean. The design of the tube pattern was so tight, that normal
high-pressure water jets wouldn't penetrate between the tubes to remove normal
buildup of scale deposits on the outside tube surfaces. By using
SUPER-WATER®, I was able to maintain a focussed high-pressure water jet
that would penetrate through the tight tube pattern, and remove the scale
buildup. SUPER-WATER® proved to be the most effective method for cleaning
these condensers, and was reported by Ontario Hydro's research personnel at a
conference in Holland back in 1990.
As you can see, I have had very good success in using your product
SUPER-WATER®. I have used your product in several different industries over
the years, the above mentioned are just a few of them. I can honestly say that
SUPER-WATER® has helped me to provide a better service to my customers, and
is a product that I will continue to use for years to come.
I have also found that when I use SUPER-WATER®, I use substantially
less water to get the job done, this is a big issue with some customers. Also
I've found that my packing, plungers, valves, and valve seats last 2 to 3 times
longer than running with straight water. This is a great cost saving to me, and
means less down time for equipment repairs during projects.
As you know, I have started to do more Consulting work, and less
contracting work. If you have any customers that are having cleaning
difficulties or need help in using SUPER-WATER®, please have them contact
me at the above mentioned address and phone number. Thanks again for all your
help, I look forward to talking to you again soon.
|
