Wide-gap heat exchangers
Wide-gap heat exchangers (or free flow type) are one of the sub-types of gasketed ones. By themselves, they are very specific equipment aimed at solving specific problems. Their occurrence derived from the necessary to heat highly viscous or contaminated fluids in plate heat exchangers with the same efficiency as any other. In this case, deposits or solid particles should not affect the product operation.
The wide-gap heat exchanger by the principle of operation practically does not differ from gasketed one. The most important difference may be the very shape of corrugation. Unlike the usual “herringbone” in the gasketed heat exchangers, the plate pattern in the wide channel one has a more ergonomic shape, similar to a wave. Because of this, when a channel is formed between two plates, there are no points of contact, and the channel size is constant over the entire length of the plate. The inter-plate gap height may vary from 5 to 25 mm, depending on the plate geometry and dimensions. This also makes it possible to avoid the appearance of dead areas on the plate surface when working fluid passes through it.
The wide-channel plate heat exchanger, despite its differences, remains quite as effective. It can also be made from a wide variety of materials, be it stainless alloys, nickel, or even titanium.
Technical specifications of Free flow heat exchanger
| RANGE OF APPLICATION OF GASKETED PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER: | VALUE (CHARACTERISTIC) |
| Maximum operating temperature: | from -30 to +200 °С |
| Maximum pressure: | 2.5 MPa |
| Area range: | from 0,18 to 1800 m² |
| Thermal load | 150 Mw |
| Plate materials: | AISI 304 AISI 316 Hastelloy С-276 SMO 254 Titanium Nickel 200 |
Advantages of the wide channel plate heat exchanger
Free Flow heat exchanger has several advantages that make it possible to use them where you cannot install any other type of plate devices. Indeed, due to the geometry of plates, such heat exchangers may be used with highly viscous fluids, without the risk of stagnation, as well as with fluids that form large mechanical deposits, or where these deposits were initially. At the same time, all advantages of the gasketed devices are preserved in these devices.
They may still be disassembled for mechanical cleaning, increase capacity by adding plates, each element remains replaceable.
What’s the main, the efficiency of gasketed heat exchangers is maintained. This means that by overall dimensions and weight, the wide-gap heat exchanger will be much smaller than the tubular or spiral one at any particular position.
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How the price for Free Flow heat exchanger is calculated
To compose the price, first, it is necessary to calculate the wide-gap heat exchanger. This is made based on indicators of temperature, flow and heat duty. Pressure loss and its performance are also taken into account.
Since free flow heat exchanger is usually used with impurities or highly viscous fluids, it is necessary to know their complete chemical composition. This should be done in order to choose correctly unit material modification and ensure the estimated service life in full.
You can buy a free flow heat exchanger from us immediately after studying our technical and commercial offer, created on the basis of the questionnaire completed by the customer.
Fields of application of free flow heat exchanger
The main fields of application include the following industries:
- Sugar. In most sugar industry production cycles, working fluids have large amounts of solids.
- Pulp and paper.
- Chemical.
- Oil and gas.
- Food.
