Performance Characteristics

• High heat transfer coefficient: Generally, it is 1300 - 4000 kcal/(m²·°C·h), and can reach up to 5000 kcal/(m²·°C·h) at the maximum. Under the same pressure loss, the heat transferred is 6 to 7 times that of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger.
• Compact structure and small footprint: The spacing between the plates is generally only 2 - 8 mm. The heat exchange area can reach 250 square meters per cubic meter, and the floor space is only one-third of that of a tube heat exchanger.
• Great operational flexibility: The heat transfer area can be quickly increased or decreased by adding or reducing the number of plates. The plates can also be rearranged to form new process combinations to adapt to changes in product processes.
• Wide application range: It can handle a variety of media, from water to high-viscosity liquids, and from small-diameter solid particles to suspensions containing fibers. It can be used in many continuous reaction processes such as heating, cooling, and condensation.
• Low metal consumption: For herringbone corrugated plates, if the weight of the frame is not considered, the metal consumption required for heat exchange per square meter is 7 - 7.7 kilograms, which is lower than that of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger with the same parameters.
• Small heat loss: Only the periphery of the plates and the gaskets are exposed to the air, and the heat loss coefficient is generally only 0.1%. Usually, there is no need to use an insulation layer.
• Convenient installation, inspection, disassembly and cleaning: It does not require anchor bolts for installation, and it is easy to carry out disassembly, installation, plate inspection, cleaning and other work.

Basic Classification

• According to the structure (shape), it can be divided into detachable plate heat exchangers, welded plate heat exchangers (including semi-welded plate heat exchangers, fully welded plate heat exchangers, plate-shell heat exchangers, and brazed plate heat exchangers), spiral plate heat exchangers, and plate-coil heat exchangers.
• According to the heat exchange area per unit space, it can be divided into compact heat exchangers.
• According to the process purpose, it can be divided into plate heaters, plate coolers, plate condensers, and plate preheaters.
• According to the process combination, it can be divided into single-pass plate heat exchangers and multi-pass plate heat exchangers.
• According to the flow direction of the medium, it can be divided into parallel-flow plate heat exchangers, counter-flow plate heat exchangers, and cross-flow plate heat exchangers.
• According to the size of the channel gap, it can be divided into conventional gap plate heat exchangers and wide gap plate heat exchangers.
• According to whether the product is a complete set, it can be divided into single-unit plate heat exchangers and plate heat exchanger units.

Application Fields

• Chemical industry: Used for heating or cooling various chemical media, such as the production of titanium oxide, alcohol fermentation, cooling of formaldehyde water, resin synthesis, electrolytic production of caustic soda, etc.
• Pharmaceutical industry: Used for the cooling, heating, sterilization, and heat recovery of pure pharmaceuticals, industrial pharmaceuticals, and other finished products, such as cooling yeast, cooling water, cooling butanol, heating of fermentation media in antibiotic production, etc.
• Oil industry: Used for the manufacture of detergents and the refining of vegetable oils, such as cooling caustic soda, cooling glycerin, heating whale oil, cooling emulsified oil, etc.
• Iron and steel industry: Used for cooling quenching oil, lubricating oil for machine tools, and liquids for electroplating, etc., such as cooling the lubricating oil of the reducer, heating or cooling the liquid for chrome plating, cooling the coolant for rolling mills and wire drawing machines, etc.
• Food industry: Used for the heating, cooling, sterilization, and heat recovery of various liquid foods, such as the production of monosodium glutamate, soy sauce, fermentation, salt production, etc.
• Paper industry: Used for waste heat recovery, such as cooling black liquor, recovering waste heat during paper bleaching, recovering waste heat from cellophane waste liquid, etc.