Immersion Heaters For Fuel Oil and Lube Oil SystemsA large user of lubrication systems for rotating equipment was experiencing premature failure of immersion heaters in his industrial application. The electric immersion heater usage was to keep the fuel oil and lube oil warm during equipment downtime. Due to our vast knowledge & experience, they reached out to Durex Industries to see if we could help with the issue.Durex’ engineering team examined the heater sheath in our in-house metallurgical lab and discovered that the heating elements in their screw plug immersion heaters were severely corroding. A lube oil analysis showed an additive in the oil that was corrosive to the steel sheath employed in the heater. Durex proposed a 304 stainless steel sheath with appropriate watt density for the oil viscosity with a high limit temperature sensor to measure element temperature. With over 40 years of experience in electric industrial heating, Durex continuously provides a wide variety of time-tested lube oil and fuel oil heating solutions. We applied this expertise to optimize the heater solution and provided a design change that solved the customer’s premature heater failures, which greatly improved equipment up time.
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