ESCO'S PICKLING EXPERTISE


ESCO personnel have been actively engaged in the design, improvement and evaluation of all types of pickle lines for over 20 years. We have experience in all types of pickling - batch rod coil or strip, continuous strip, continuous strand or Loopro - and all the main pickling acids: sulfuric, hydrochloric, and nitric/HF.

    ESCO's particular strengths are:

      - we are primarily an engineering company, and every pickle line is designed for the specific application. There are no 'standard designs'. Nevertheless, we use proven equipment and technology, based on our experience.

      - pollution control is built into our pickle lines. In many cases, we can design an effluent-free system; if this is not possible, the volume of effluent is minimized by use of fume scrubbers with very low water consumption, countercurrent rinses, and water re-use and recycle.

      - we are experienced in operations. All designs involve a careful consideration of operating needs, to ensure that the system requires a minimum of labor and maintenance. Equipment is selected for long life and minimum maintenance, rather than low first cost.

We are particularly knowledgeable about HCl pickling, and have a unique scrubber system for HCl fumes. We understand the extremely corrosive nature of HCl, and how to protect the plant and equipment by proper material selection and fume control.

We also have a new concept for batch HCl pickling. It is 'closed pickling', and applies the technology of high speed strip pickling to batch rod coil. Essentially, the rod coils are placed in a closed tank, and the acid and rinse waters are sprayed onto the steel in an automatic cycle. The advantages of this approach are:

    - you can use much higher acid temperatures and concentrations than with open tanks; this speeds up pickling.

    - very small fume control requirements save substantial capital costs, and reduce effluent generation.

    - lower overall cost than open tank system, yet retains the flexibility of batch pickling.

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