Alignment of basket retainer clips for heat exchanger tube cleaning elements

摘要

A heat exchanger (1) has a housing (2) containing a plurality of fluid flow tubes (5) through which tube cleaning elements (18) are propelled between elongated baskets (17) mounted in communication with the tube ends. The baskets include longitudinally extending slots (22). A removable retainer (28) is adapted for mounting to each outer basket end. The retainer includes a central body portion (29) of molded plastic and a plurality of circumferentially spaced clips (30) for latching onto the basket. Each clip includes a first longitudinally outwardly extending leg (31), a second longitudinally inwardly extending leg (33), and a reverse bend loop (32) joining the legs. A radially extending rib (38) is formed in the reverse bend loop and is connected at its ends to the first and second legs. The ribs on circumferentially spaced clips are of such a length as to normally hold all of the legs in parallelism.