Keeping things cool with heat exchangers

Teralba Industries says Dimpleflo heat exchangers are increasing their market share because of their ability to reduce ongoing maintenance costs. Many existing and long-standing heat-exchanger installations have been selected based on lowest install cost with little or no regard for ongoing maintenance costs. Often, heat exchangers are selected with low fluid flow velocities, excessive surface area or small flow apertures, resulting in fouling and in some cases blockages.

At Teralba, every heat-transfer application is analysed before performing a selection to determine the optimum heat exchanger for the required job. Factors such as space restrictions, fluid characteristics, solids and particle concentration, viscosity and fouling are all considered, as well as impact on the flow velocity, heat transfer coefficients and fouling factors. According to Teralba, the selected heat exchanger will perform the duty with maintenance intervals up to two years.

Teralba says it is actively involved in working with clients throughout the application process to determine best practice and technical specifications that ensure effectiveness and maximum efficiency gains once products are installed on site.

The company’s engineering staff conceptualise, design and manufacture products for use in industrial environments, using high-grade stainless steel to provide corrosion resistance and robustness within the confines of the processing requirements.

Recently, Teralba installed a Dimpleflo heat exchanger to replace an existing plate-type unit used to cool food products. The customer was dismantling the plate heat exchanger every two weeks to remove deposit build-ups and often had to replace gaskets and even the entire plate pack. A replacement gasket set for this heat exchanger was over 30% of the original cost of the unit.

Installing a Dimpleflo has reduced the maintenance interval to once per year and the total gasket cost is less than half the cost of the plate heat-exchanger gaskets.

Teralba says the continuing improvement and efficiency of Dimpleflo heat exchangers has resulted in their success in Australia and overseas, where wineries, beverage manufacturers, food processing plants, chemical producers and mining facilities have all reported excellent results.