Plate Heat Exchanger

Plate heat exchanger is a kind of heat exchanger that employs metal plates to transport heat between two fluids. This factor benefits immensely over a traditional heat exchanger in which the fluids are exposed to a wider surface region since the fluid spread out over the plates. This moderates the transport of heat and raises the speed of the temperature change. Plate heat exchangers are now usually small brazed versions are employed in the hot water portions of millions of mixture boilers.

The high heat transfer efficiency for such a small physical size has increased the domestic hot water flow-rate of mixture boilers. The small plate heat exchanger has made a great impact in domestic heating and hot water. Bigger profitable versions use gaskets between the plates, smaller version tend to be brazed. The concept behind a heat exchanger is the use of pipes or other containment vessels to heat or cool one fluid by transporting heat between it and another fluid. In most cases, the exchanger consists of a coiled pipe containing one fluid. The walls of the pipe are commonly made of metal or another substance with a high thermal conductivity to assist the interchange whereas the outer casing of the bigger chamber is made of a plastic or coated with thermal insulation to depress heat from escaping from the exchanger.

The plate heat exchanger was discovered by Dr Richard Seligman in the year 1923 and revolutionized methods of indirect heating and cooling of fluids. Dr Richard Seligman founded APV in the year 1910 as the Aluminum plant & Vessel Company limited a specialist fabricating firm supplying welded vessels to the brewery and vegetable oil trades.

The plant exchanger is a specialized design well fitting to transferring heat between medium and low pressure fluids. Welded, semi-welded and brazed heat exchangers are employed for heat exchange between high-pressure fluids or where a more compact product is needed. In place of a pipe passing through a chamber, there are instead two alternating chambers, generally thin in depth separated at their largest surface by a corrugated metal plate.

The plates employed in a plate heat exchanger are received by one piece pressing of metal plates. Stainless steel is a regularly employed metal for the plates since its abilities to endure high temperatures, its strength and its corrosion resistance. The plates are spaced frequently by rubber sealing gaskets that are cemented into a portion around the edge of the plates.

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