Emerging Skills Program — no certification exam
Heat Exchanger Integrity & Tube Bundle Assessment
Why bundles fail, what the inspection data can and cannot tell you, and how to decide between plugging, retubing and replacing.
Why this matters
The problem this solves
A tube bundle is the one piece of equipment where the damage is concentrated in the thinnest material, in the least accessible place, and behind the least conclusive inspection data on the plant.
Exchanger decisions are made under genuine uncertainty. Eddy current data on a partially ferromagnetic bundle, a leak that could be tube, tube-to-tubesheet joint or a partition plate, and a turnaround window that will not extend — the decision is rarely limited by the standards, it is limited by what the data supports.
This programme works the damage mechanisms first, because everything downstream depends on knowing what you are looking for, then the inspection methods and their real limits, then the run-plug-retube-replace decision. Detailed maintenance and component-level practice is the live course.
Before you enrol
Is this a certification?
The short answer is no, and it is worth being explicit about it rather than leaving it to be discovered later.
What this programme gives you
- Three days on damage mechanisms, inspection interpretation and the repair decision
- Worked interpretation of real bundle inspection data
- A plug-retube-replace decision framework you can apply in a turnaround
- An EIM certificate of completion
What it does not
- Not preparation for a certification exam — no certifying body examines this subject
- No API credential at the end
- Not an NDT operator qualification — this is interpretation, not technique certification
- Not a thermal design or rating course
If you need a recognised credential, start at certification exam preparation.
Who it's for
Roles this is built around
Inspection engineers
Fixed equipment
Specifying bundle inspection scope and then having to act on the result.
Reliability and maintenance engineers
Rotating or static
Owning exchanger availability and the cost of getting the call wrong.
Turnaround planners
Any level
Deciding which bundles come out, and what the contingency is if one is worse than expected.
What it covers
The outline
An outline, not a weighted Body of Knowledge — nobody publishes weights for a subject with no exam behind it.
Types and what they imply
Fixed tubesheet, U-tube, floating head and air-cooled, and how construction constrains inspection and repair.
Damage mechanisms in bundles
Under-deposit corrosion, erosion, vibration, dew point, stress corrosion cracking and fouling-driven damage.
Inspection methods and their limits
Eddy current, remote field, IRIS and visual — what each detects, and what each misses.
Reading bundle data properly
Percentage wall loss, calibration assumptions, and why a clean report is not always good news.
Plug, retube or replace
The plugging limit, the thermal penalty, and building the case for a replacement bundle.
Preventing the next one
Velocity limits, chemical treatment, cleaning intervals and design changes that actually pay back.
Outcomes
What you will be able to do
- Identify the credible damage mechanisms for a given exchanger service and material
- Specify a bundle inspection scope matched to the mechanisms you expect
- Interpret eddy current and IRIS results, including what their limitations hide
- Apply a plugging limit and know when plugging has become the wrong answer
- Build a defensible case for retubing or replacing rather than repairing again
- Set a cleaning and monitoring regime that addresses the mechanism rather than the symptom
Standards referenced
What the programme works from
| Standard | What we use it for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| TEMA | Standards of the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association | Construction classes and terminology |
| API 660 | Shell-and-tube heat exchangers | — |
| API 661 | Air-cooled heat exchangers | For the air-cooled module |
| API 510 | Pressure Vessel Inspection Code | Where the exchanger shell is inspected under |
| API RP 571 | Damage Mechanisms Affecting Fixed Equipment | The mechanism reference |
How it runs
Ways to take it
Formats offered — not scheduled dates. Live cohort dates live on the course page, so there is only ever one copy of a date.
| Format | Duration | Group size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live online | 3 days | Up to 15 | Split across sessions rather than run as consecutive full days |
| In-house | By arrangement | 6–20 | Delivered against your own equipment, your own findings and your own procedures |
Also available live
Take this as a scheduled course
FAQs
Questions people ask first
No. NDT operator qualification is a separate, certified path through schemes such as ASNT or PCN. This programme is about specifying the inspection and interpreting what comes back, which is the engineer’s side of the same job.
The exchanger shell is a pressure vessel and is inspected under API 510. The bundle largely is not — which is precisely why bundle assessment tends to fall between roles, and why this exists as its own subject.
The live Heat Exchanger Inspection & Maintenance course goes further into components, maintenance practice and repair execution. This programme concentrates on the integrity decision: what failed, what the data supports, and what to do about it.
Want the full outline?
Tell us your role and what you are trying to fix, and we will send the programme outline and what it would take to run it for your team.