APPLICATOR & ENGINEER’S GUIDE
Applying TRANSATHERM the amazing new heat conductive putty. eliminates the need for expensive steam jacketing. Its use on pipe lines, pumps, valves, instruments, filters. molds, valves etc., has well established its use as an effective, low cost means of replacing expensive, sometimes hard to get jacketing for equipment at a fraction of the cost. This guide should aid the engineer and the applicator in the solution of many of his steam tracing problems. For those cases where outside assistance is needed, remember our technical staff is at your service.
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1. Apply the tracer tubing as prescribed in the tables and paragraphs that follow.
2. Strap tubing to piping or equipment using bailing wire, steel bands, etc. This practice varies greatly from plant to plant.
3. Put a steam trap about every 75 feet, trapping all low points.
4. Tum steam on for a short while to find leaks and to set tubing.
5. Check to see that piping is free from scale, dirt or grease.
6. Apply TRANSATHERM over all the tracers with a trowel forcing it into all the voids between the parts to be heated and the tracer.
7. Cure the TRANSATHERM by allowing it to set for a day in a dry atmosphere. Curing can be hastened by the slow careful application of steam to the tracers.
8. Insulate with pipe covering one size larger than the pipe used or use the same size covering as the pipe and fill the gap formed with insulating “mud.” A groove may also be cut into the insulation to accommodate the tracers.
9. Protect TRANSATHERM from the weather on outdoor installations. Carefully apply steam through the tracers to effect a fast cure, install the necessary insulation and/or weatherproof covering the same day if possible.
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Drawing from our own experiments and calculations and our customers’ varied experiences we have devised a simple method for steam tracing which has worked out remarkably well in the field. It is simply this:
1. Stock and use only one size copper tubing. Size ”O.D. x .032″ wall soft annealed copper tubing was chosen after noting that it is a standard size readily available, it is flexible enough for small radius bends, its surface area is large enough for good heat transfer and the pressure drop for steam through it was not considered excessive. Do not use copper tubing for steam pressures exceeding 250 PSIG.
2. Calculation of the amount of TRANSATHERM is simple, use 0.2-0.25 lb./ft. of tracing used. This figure of course varies somewhat. since it is dependent on the person doing the application.
3. Find the amount of tubing needed from either of the two methods, Practical and Engineer’s, described below.
4. These tracers normally have a common steam feed and steam trap and run longitudinally along the line to be heated.
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When it comes to choosing the amount of copper tubing needed to steam trace a pipe line, a valve or a piece of equipment, there are many factors to consider which cannot be accurately calculated. Table I describes the practical man’s approach, or it can be used with lines that handle a variety of products.
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The engineer in designing steam traced systems will probably not be satisfied with the preceding method. A more scientific approach follows. However, it is well to realize that this method is also an approximation as it does not deal with unsteady state heat transfer, but by necessity is based on static conditions. The variables being the ambient, steam and process temperatures and the resistance to heat flow of the insulation. For simplification this resistance is indicated by insulation thickness. To find the number of %” copper tubing steam tracers to be used for any particular line, use the formula below to calculate “R”, the ratio of the thermal resistances, and refer to Table Il.
R= Tp – Ta /Ta – Tp
R – Ratio of thermal resistances based on l Y2″ insulation T p – Process Temperature T a – Ambient Temperature T s – Steam Temperature
