Abstract: An abrasive cleaning ball (1) is made of a mass of sponge rubber filled with abrasive grains (2) intimately mixed within the mass. The grains are constituted by short lengths of a wire made of an abrasive material that is polygonal in section, preferably square in section, and coated on its side surfaces with dried adhesive.

Abstract: To impregnate with water the spongy balls (1) that are to be used for cleaning the tubes of a condenser, the balls are put into a tank (2) whose upper portion forms a chamber (10) that is separated from the remainder of the tank by a grid (9) to which the balls cannot pass, the chamber is connected to a pump (17) having a piston (19), and then after the tank and the volumes in communication therewith have been filled with water, all of the valves giving access to the tank are closed, the piston of the pump is pulled back, thereby causing air to be expelled from the balls in the chamber, and the volume is again completely refilled with water so as to evacuate said air and impregnate the balls with water.

Abstract: To remove worn elastic balls from a cleaning installation for a tube bundle, this installation comprising between the outlet and the inlet of the tube bundle, a recycling circuit for the balls, recourse is had to a static separator for worn balls joined to a pipe connected in bypass to the recycling pipe system and equipped with a collecting basket. The separator is joined directly between two sections of the recycling pipe system and the openings of separation of the worn balls are bounded by the crests of parallel rails extending in parallel with the liquid flow of the pipe system, the downstream ends of the rails being terminated by discontinuities adapted to detach automatically from the rails balls penetrating partially between these rails without being able to pass between them and drawn by sliding along the rails.

Abstract: For assembling together a bundle of parallel tubes (1) recourse is had to flexible and sealed pipes (2) inserted jointingly between the successive layers of these tubes, said pipes having sufficient elasticity for being successively flattened by evacuation of their inner volume, which allows positioning thereof in the bundle, then resuming their initial tubular shape by suppression of the vacuum, and said pipes are made from a partially crystalline plastic material, such as a polyamide 11, which allows them to be positioned in the bundle by simply pushing from their portion not engaged in the bundle.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for separating, from the fluid (F) which transports them, the cleaning bodies (2) leaving the tubes of an exchanger with this fluid after having cleaned these tubes, which device comprises two stages for gathering together the bodies respectively in two transverse direction X and Y perpendicular to each other, namely a first stage formed by an oblique grid (4) and a second stage formed by a hopper (6) converging toward the downstream direction, which hopper has a permeable wall (7) parallel to direction Y and is elongate in this direction. A bridge (9) is provided across the hopper, which bridge extends on each side of this hopper in direction X, but not in direction Y, which creates in the downstream region of the hopper swirls preventing any clogging up of the wall (7).