Plate Type Heat Exchanger

This type of heat exchanger consists of many corrugated plates and the hot and cold fluids alternate between each of the plates.

The most distinctive feature of plate type heat exchanger is that you can increase or decrease the number of plates. In other words, you can increase or decrease the capacity.
As for the plate material, titanium is mainly used for seawater type.
Stainless can be also used.
In case of heat exchanger on ship, due to the limited space on ship, plate type heat exchanger is more likely to be adopted.
Our company decided to become an all-round player in the field of heat exchangers, so we are now able to supply products and services for all types including shell & tube type, fin type and plate type.

Photo below is our first plate type heat exchanger.
This is relatively small, but the structure is the same for larger type.

This is the product appearance. Numbers of heat exchange plates are sandwiched by both rear and front plates.
There are 4 inlets and outlets for cooling and being cooled.

You can see the plate shape. This corrugated shape enhances thermal efficiency and strength of plates.
The fluids to cool and the fluids to be cooled alternate between front and back side of the plates.

These plates were used for long time. The left plate is before cleaning and the right is after cleaning.
Such high level of dirt affects performance.

Usually, NBR is used for seal gasket between each plate.
NBR’s material has improved, so it has good sealability and deterioration resistance.

Installation of Plate Type Heat Exchanger

After plate type heat exchanger is delivered to the site, we start to work on installation.
It is made by piling up many thin plates, so we have to handle it with the utmost care, especially when lifting.
If any unnatural force is imposed, it could cause liquid leak.
After installed properly, we connect pipe to the part for cooling and the part for being cooled.
To be more specific, there are many other works to be done, but basically above is the brief description of the installation

After installation, next is running. We have to be careful here again.
This is what all heat exchangers have in common, but firstly the cold fluids should be flowed in and then the hot fluids. If you reverse this order, it will cause troubles.

Most customers do installation by themselves and they are well aware of procedures,
so we rarely encounter any troubles on installation or first running.

Photo below shows piping for the plate type heat exchanger which cools lubricating oil.

There are 150 plates in this heat exchanger.
It is under piping.

These are the plates before assembly.Since it is for ship, those plates are delivered near the equipment onboard.

We have to be careful not to impose unnatural force when piping and it requires a great deal of skilled techniques.

Side Entry Condenser

This photo shows a condenser for steam turbine with 1560m².
Steam flows in from the left side.

Same as the photo above, steam flows in from the left side.This condenser has an unusual shape.
You can see 2 belt-like things on the body and these are the protection for lifting.

Side entry condenser is in production.
A big hole in the middle is steam inlet.

Condenser

It may not be that familiar. It is mainly used to convert the outlet steam from turbine (for power generation, etc.) into the form of liquid water. Generally, condensers are put in a vacuum state (below atmospheric pressure) in order to lower saturated temperature, and water is used for cooling. Photos below show a condenser for the private power generation facility by one of our customers from a paper manufacturing company.

It is in production.
Golden colored disc is called “tube plate”.
We consider heat exchanger’s tube plate as equipment’s face.

Once water chamber cover is attached, it is ready to ship.
It is lifted by 2 cranes and loaded on a trailer, and then transported.Hot well, in which water condensed from steam is collected, is usually sent separately.
After a shell body is installed, it is welded to the bottom of the body.

Above is the limitation in size for land transportation (by trailer).
If the size is larger than above, we can either (i) ship parts and assemble on site, or (ii) transport by sea.
Our factory is located along the coast and it is only 200 meters away from the wharf, so we can transport by sea without size limitations as long as it can be manufactured by our factory.
At the same time, we also need to consider the location at our customer side, whether it is located near the sea or how far it is from the arrival port to the site.

Shell & Tube Type Heat Exchanger

This type of heat exchanger consists of a shell body with a bundle of tubes inside it.
Heat is transferred by fluid flowing inside and outside the tubes.
The fluids can be liquids or gases at high temperatures or low temperatures with high pressure or low pressure, etc. The tube material has also various options from the perspective of corrosion or thermal efficiency.

In case of heat exchangers on ships, seawater is often used as fluids and in order to minimize deterioration such as corrosion, copper alloy is mainly used for the tube material, but recently there have been more cases of titanium as a high corrosion resistance material.
It may seem very simple in its structure, but actually there is much know-how in various aspects.
You can see condensers, one of the heat exchangers, in photos below.

There are 2 same condensers for overseas customers.
We do inspection before painting to confirm that it is made as per designed size and there is no leak.

This is a condenser on ship.
One of shell and tube type heat exchangers.

The size of heat exchanger is usually measured by heat transfer area.
Heat transfer area means outer surface area of tubes for shell and tube type.