UltraMax HX — Giant Immersion Ultrasonic Tanks for Heat Exchanger Bundles

The problem

A bundle is the hardest thing in the plant to clean

Hundreds of tubes, tight pitch, deposit on the inside and the outside, and no line of sight to most of it. Anything that relies on aim — jetting, lancing, spray — can only clean what it can point at.

Cavitation does not need line of sight

It works wherever the liquid goes. In a bundle that means between tubes, into the pitch, and along the full length — the places a lance never reaches and a spray bar cannot see.

And it does not remove metal

No media, no abrasive, no lance pressure against tube walls. Deposit comes off; wall thickness stays where it was. That matters when the bundle is going back into service and has to pass inspection.

If the bundle has to be cut down, unstacked or split to fit the tank, the tank is the wrong size — and you are paying for that in labour every single time.

Heating — a priced option, deliberately

Not every duty needs it, and the ones that do are split between sites with steam available and sites without. Electric clamp tubes with baffles and a fitted temperature sensor, or a steam pipeline where you already have the plant.

You are not paying for 120 kW of heating you will never switch on.

Circulation & filtration — also optional

The connections are standard on every tank: dirty draw one side, filtered return the other. The skid itself is specified to your deposit — because filtering carbon off a rebuild bundle and filtering scale off an exchanger are not the same problem.

Retrofit later without touching the tank.

Under test

202.8 kW, in water

A tank this size is not something you take on trust. This is one running under test before it ships — the transducer banks driving the full volume.

The tank under test on the floor, transducers running.

Clip is silent and loads only when you press play.

Four working lengths

Size it by the longest thing you clean

All four share the same platform: submersible transducer arrays in SS316L housings, 415 V three-phase supply, and heating and filtration as specified options. Tank material is specified to the duty — SS304 on the 3 and 6, SS316 on the 9 and 12. Between sizes, or past them? Size your own tank.

Model	Max bundle length	Volume	Effective tank (L×W×D)	Frequency	Ultrasonic power
UltraMax HX 3	3 m	≈11,880 L	3000 × 2200 × 1800 mm	40 kHz	43.2 kW
UltraMax HX 6	6 m	≈23,760 L	6000 × 2200 × 1800 mm	40 kHz	86.4 kW
UltraMax HX 9	9 m	≈29,160 L	9000 × 1800 × 1800 mm	28 kHz	156 kW
UltraMax HX 12	12 m	≈45,540 L	11000 × 1800 × 2300 mm	28 kHz	202.8 kW

Click to enlarge

A tank on the floor during build and test

Photographed during build and test. The HX 12 general arrangement is dimensioned; drawings for HX 3 and HX 6 follow.

Frequency

28 kHz or 40 kHz — chosen by the deposit, not the price list

28 kHz — heavy scale and hard deposit

Lower frequency, larger cavitation bubbles, more energy per collapse. This is the setting for exchanger bundles carrying mineral scale, hard carbon and process deposit that has been baked on across a run. Standard on HX 12.

40 kHz — finer clean, gentler on the surface

Smaller, more numerous bubbles and a gentler action — better on finished surfaces, softer alloys and general degreasing or passivation duty. Standard on HX 3 and HX 6.

Frequency and temperature are separate decisions, and both are limited by the substrate. Aluminium, brass and coated assemblies need a gentler frequency and a lower bath temperature than carbon steel will happily take. Bath temperature — chemistry vs substrate →

Platform standard

Common to every UltraMax HX

ConstructionSS304 / SS316 tanks

SS304 on the 3 and 6 m tanks, SS316 on the 9 and 12 m bundle troughs — with SS316L transducer housings throughout. Confirmed with the chemistry at quotation.

TransducersSubmersible arrays, SS316L

2.5 mm SS316L housings. Arrays are positioned to the tank, not bolted on as an afterthought.

Electrical415 V / 50 Hz / 3-phase, 5-wire

Generator cabinets sized per model. AS3100 certification for Australian installation.

HandlingLifting eyes, crane loading

Loaded from above by crane or gantry — the only sane way to place a bundle.

Floor loading0.75 t/m²

Design figure across the range. Confirm against your slab before siting.

Warranty12 months

Backed by Australian commissioning and support, not an offshore email address.

The range, up and down

Where UltraMax sits

Bundles come in sizes, and so does the answer. Below the HX range the tank is a heavy industrial cleaner rather than a bundle tank; above the standard sizes, it is engineered from scratch.

Below

EvoSonic EVS 7000-PL

4,433 L heavy industrial. Takes plate packs, headers and smaller bundles — and does heat-exchanger duty in its own right.

EVS 7000 →

This range

UltraMax HX 3 · 6 · 9 · 12

14,500 to 45,540 litres, 3 to 12 metres of working length. The bundle goes in whole.

Compare the sizes →

Above, or sideways

Custom build — CM series

A length no standard tank covers — size your own tank on the same platform. Or a staged sequence — degreasing, passivation and drying as separate stations.

Size your own → Custom builds →

The filtration option

Without filtration you are washing the bundle in what came off it

Every UltraMax tank ships with circulation connections as standard — dirty draw one side, filtered return the other. What goes between them is the option that decides how long the bath lasts. A bundle carries kilograms of scale, carbon and sludge; the first one loads the bath, and by the third you are re-depositing it.

The filtration skid is the answer: housings, pump, valves, instrumentation and pipework on one bunded frame, tested before it ships. Specified to your deposit — filtering carbon off a rebuild bundle and filtering scale off a water-side bundle are not the same duty, and the bag, the housing and the flow rate all change with it.

Skids and systems

The whole system on one frame, built to duty.

Configure a skid →

Bags and housings

Micron rating and media chosen for the deposit, not the catalogue.

Filter bags →

Oil on the surface

Weirs, coalescers and skimming, where the bundle brings oil with it.

Filtration overview →

The chemistry

Cavitation does the work. The chemistry decides what it works on.

A heat exchanger rarely carries one deposit. Water-side scale, process-side carbon, oil, biofilm and corrosion product turn up in combination, and the chemistry has to suit the deposit and the tube metallurgy — copper, cupronickel, stainless and titanium do not all tolerate the same bath.

CoreKleen HX

Heat-exchanger grade, for bundle and plate-pack descaling.

CoreKleen HX →

Descale and desludge

Where the deposit is mineral scale, or where sludge has to come out first.

Descale → · Desludge →

Passivation after

Where the bundle goes back into service and has to pass inspection.

Passivation →

Chemistry is selected against your deposit and your tube metal at trial, not chosen off a page. Send the bundle, or send a tube sample.

The business case

The arithmetic that decides it

A bundle tank is a capital purchase, and the case for it is rarely the cleaning itself — it is what the cleaning replaces. These are the numbers worth putting side by side. They are yours, not ours: we will not quote a payback we cannot see your figures for.

What to compare	The question to answer
Replacement avoided	What does a new bundle cost, and how many of the ones you scrapped were scrapped because cleaning could not recover them?
Downtime	What does an hour of that unit being down cost, and how many hours does the current method take against an unattended immersion cycle?
Labour	Hydroblasting and lancing are people standing there for the whole job. Immersion is loading and unloading.
Outsourcing	What do you pay per bundle now, including freight both ways and the time it is off site?
Heat transfer recovered	Fouling costs energy every day it is there. What is the fuel or power difference between a fouled and a clean unit on your duty?
Inspection pass rate	No media, no lance pressure, no metal removed — what is that worth where wall thickness is measured?
Water and disposal	Blast water volume against a filtered bath that is topped up rather than dumped.

The honest answer on payback. For most plants the case is made by two lines — bundles recovered instead of replaced, and hours of downtime removed. If neither of those is significant for you, a tank of this size is probably not the right purchase, and contract cleaning is. We will say so.

Send a bundle first → Build the case with us

Next step

Tell us the longest thing you clean

That single dimension decides the machine. Everything else follows from it.

Scope a UltraMax HX

Send bundle or component dimensions, the deposit you are removing and your throughput. Tanks this size are quoted to site — including installation, services and the options you actually need.

An enquiry, not a commitment. Nothing here excludes rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

Clean the bundle whole.

Four sizes — or build your own