Save days on turnaround with the Blasch family of precast ferrules. Blasch patented ferrules are pre-engineered for each installation and come properly sized, accurately molded, and completely wrapped with all required fiber insulation.

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Engineered Ferrules for
High Temperature
Waste Heat Boilers

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• Ferrule Systems • Round Ferrules
• Hex Ferrules
• Hex Ferrule Design
• Hex Ferrule Experience
Engineered Products

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• Round Ferrules
• Hex Ferrules
• Hex Ferrule Design
• Hex Ferrule Experience
• Basic Design
• Disadvantages
• Can Performance Be
Improved?
Ferrule Systems

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For many decades simple round
ferrules embedded in a monolithic
refractory have been the standard
for high temperature waste heat
boiler tubesheet protection.
• Basic Design
• Disadvantages
• Can Performance Be
Improved?
Round Ferrules

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Reliability of a round ferrule
installation is strongly influenced
by:
• Selection of refractory
• Type of anchors used
• Skill of the installers
• Care of the cure out
• Operating temperature and cycling
• Basic Design
• Disadvantages
• Can Performance Be
Improved?
Any deviation from the optimal in any of
the elements shown to the left can result
in cracking, sometimes even catastrophic
failure, even before introduction of acid
gas
Round Ferrules

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If concrete requires expansion
joints to survive 100 deg C
temperature swings over
periods of many months, how
can one expect refractory to
survive 1,700 deg C swings in
days without them? That is why sidewalks have expansion joints
every meter.
• Basic Design
• Disadvantages
• Can Performance Be
Improved?
Round Ferrules

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• Round Ferrules
• Hex Ferrules
• Hex Ferrule Design
• Hex Ferrule Experience
• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation
Ferrule Systems

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• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation
– Ferrules are specifically designed
to fit each application’s tubesheet
and unique set of operating
conditions.
– Have been successfully used in
waste heat boilers with tube
diameters from 20mm to 200mm.
– Particularly compatible with
systems that use oxygen
enrichment and those with very
large tubesheets.
– Available in a range of alumina
compositions to suit, up to 99.6%
Hex Ferrules

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• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation • Available with a range of design
options to address different
tubesheet situations.
– 1-Piece. The one-piece hex
ferrule design, now more than
a decade old, has been used in
hundreds of successful
installations in a wide variety of
chemical applications
worldwide.
Hex Ferrules

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• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation • Available with a range of design
options to address different
tubesheet situations.
– ProLok 2-Piece. Produced with
Blasch’s patented Engineered
Expansion Joint Design.
Segmenting the ferrule increases
the available expansion
management capacity while
maintaining the unique Blasch
fiber seal mechanism. ProLok
interlocking system prevents
stems from walking out under the
most severe vibration
Hex Ferrules

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• No castable is required between the
ferrules. During installation, some
castable would be needed around
the perimeter of the ferrules, but
the amount needed would be quite
small in comparison to a
conventional installation. This
system can typically be installed in
about one third of the time it would
take to do a conventional
installation. Additionally, refractory
cure times can often be reduced
during startup.
Hex Ferrules
• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation

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• Replacement costs are quite low. If
the plant owner wishes to inspect
the tubesheet, they would typically
need to remove the ferrules. For a
conventional installation this is a
time consuming and costly activity
because the castable must be
removed and the ferrules cannot be
reused. For Blasch precast ferrules,
such activities are much simpler;
typically only 10% of the ferrules
need to be replaced, which
substantially reduces maintenance
costs and downtime.
• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation
Hex Ferrules

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• Ferrules tend to have a lower
pressure drop than conventional
ferrules, which can either lead to
improvements in waste heat boiler
thru-put or lower plant energy
consumption.
• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation
Hex Ferrules

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– Ferrules are supplied complete
with all necessary refractory fiber
wraps and gaskets.
– Installation involves simply
sliding each ferrule into the tube
sheet.
– Installation is typically completed
from the bottom of the
tubesheet to the top.
– The assembly is finished with a
castable or plastic refractory
periphery.
– No metal anchors are required.
Ferrules are held in place
through friction with the boiler
tube ID’s coupled with the
peripheral refractory.
Hex Ferrules
• Overview
• Advantages
• Installation

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• Round Ferrules
• Hex Ferrules
• Hex Ferrule Design
• Hex Ferrule Experience
• Basic Refractory Design
• Ferrule Design Philosophy
• Ferrule Design Features
Hex Ferrule Design

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• Basic Refractory Design
• Ferrule Design Philosophy
• Ferrule Design Features
• Refractory is not a metal
– It does not act the same way under
high temperature conditions.
– It is not characterized to the degree
that metals are.
– All 95% Aluminas are not created
equally.
• Design guidelines
– Never design with interior sharp
angles. Anything that looks like an
interior corner will amplify stress and
act as an origination site for cracking.
– Whenever possible, design to avoid
placing refractory in tension.
Thermal gradients can place
refractory in tension.
– Never interfere with the need for
refractory to expand and contract
– Design so as to work with thermal
cycling, not against it.
Basic Refractory Design

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• Blasch hex ferrules should
never be mortared
together, or kept from
acting independently in any
way.
• This is particularly critical in
very large tubesheets,
where enormous stresses
can develop.
• Any given hex ferrule is
impacted only by a
maximum of six
neighboring ferrules.
• Basic Refractory Design
• Ferrule Design Philosophy
• Ferrule Design Features
Ferrule Design Philosophy

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Mortaring ferrules together creates
the same sort of situation as in a cast
monolithic tubesheet
And yields similar results after a
number of thermal cycles
Ferrule Design Philosophy

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• Basic Refractory Design
• Ferrule Design Philosophy
• Ferrule Design Features
• Generous Radius Under the
Head
• Recessed Groove Around
the Head
• Aggressively Profiled Inlet
• Required Operating
Parameters
Ferrule Design Features

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• Generous Radius Under the Head
• Recessed Groove Around the Head
• Aggressively Profiled Inlet
• Required Operating Parameters
• Minimizes stress concentration
between head and stem.
• Proven very reliable.
Please Note large
recess filled with
insulating fiber
Ferrule Design Features

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• Maintains space for the ceramic fiber
wrap around the head.
• Allows for a tight hot face seal at
operating temperature.
Recessed groove
with high alumina
fiber installed
• Generous Radius Under the Head
• Recessed Groove Around the Head
• Aggressively Profiled Inlet
• Required Operating Parameters
Ferrule Design Features
Expansion
Joint

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• Significantly reduces pressure drop
across the ferrule as compared to
straight and chamfered bore ferrules.
• Generous Radius Under the Head
• Recessed Groove Around the Head
• Aggressively Profiled Inlet
• Required Operating Parameters
Ferrule Design Features

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• Tube OD
• Tube material, wall thickness and
applicable tolerances
• Pitch (distance and angle
between center of tubes)
• Tubesheet tube center
tolerances – both tube to tube
and cumulative
• Normal operating temperature
and any likely spikes
• Any unusual gas components, or
specific temperature profile
requirements
• Specifics of tube to tubesheet
weld for clearances
• Tubesheet Thickness
Ferrule Design Features
• Generous Radius Under the Head
• Recessed Groove Around the Head
• Aggressively Profiled Inlet
• Required Operating Parameters

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• Round Ferrules
• Hex Ferrules
• Hex Ferrule Design
• Hex Ferrule Experience
• Operating Experience
• Partial List of Users
Hex Ferrule Experience

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• First installation commissioned
more than 20 years ago
• Nearly 250 successful
installations
• Many operating near or over
3,000F (1,650C) on oxygen
enrichment
Hex Ferrule Experience
• Operational Experience
• Partial list of users