Design and Manufacture of Heat Exchangers| Repair and Refurbishment of Heat Exchangers |Ultrasonic Cleaning Specialist
SA Heat exchange design and manufacture customized air blast ( Fin And Tube) heat exchangers as well as build to samples or drawing. Our emphasis is on built for Africa conditions
SA Heat Exchange Technology offers a full repair and refurbishment service for most fluid and gas cooled heat exchangers. Heat exchangers require periodic maintenance from cleaning to re-tubing and in the worse case scenario, re-manufacturing. We have a team of fully qualified staff to carry out this work either in our factory. With nearly 30 years of experience of this work we have encountered most problems associated with old heat exchangers which has led to the development of several patented products and technologies aimed at prolonging the life of heat exchangers. These products can be incorporated in initial designs but more often are used during a repair or refurbishment programme to combat corrosion, erosion, stress corrosion cracking etc.Utilising existing headers, frames and even tubes. Various materials may be specified depending on the tube-side temperature and chemical, fluid or gas involved.
Ultrasonic cleaning uses cavitation bubbles induced by high frequency pressure (sound) waves to agitate a liquid. The agitation produces high forces on contaminants adhering to metals. This action also penetrates blind holes, cracks, and recesses. The intention is to thoroughly remove all traces of contamination tightly adhering or embedded onto solid surfaces. Water and wetting agents are used, depending on the type of contamination and the work piece. Contaminants can include dust, dirt, oil, pigments, rust, grease, algae, fungus, bacteria, lime scale, polishing compounds, flux agents, and so on. Ultrasonic cleaning can be used for a wide range of work piece shapes, sizes and materials, and may not require the part to be disassembled prior to cleaning. Our Ultra sonic cleaning tank has a inside dimentions of 2.2 x 1.4 x 1.4m We can clean coolers up to 3.2m long 1.4m wide
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Air Blast coolers & heaters / Block fin
Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers
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Blockage and Fouling | Repairs and Rebuilds
Fouling adversely affects the efficiency of heat exchangers and can lead to the premature failure of the heat exchanger. By selecting appropriate fouling factors at the design stage, an extra margin of capacity can be provided. Utilizing a smaller heat exchanger for capital budget reasons, by not taking in to account fouling factors at the design stage, can represent a false economy. The effects of reduced heat transfer capacity, low process yields and more frequent outages, to accommodate cleaning and extra maintenance, will increase life cycle costs beyond any initial savings.
The importance of experienced heat exchanger design and a good understanding of unit failures is paramount to extended product life.
Significant damage to heat exchanger blocks can then occur as a result of cleaning by pressure washing, where very often the fins are flattened by contact or the action of water if power washing is used. To rectify this requires hours of manual straightening of the fins to ensure thermal efficiency is not impaired.
ElfinBlock is assembled without heat, preventing the fins and tubes from softening during the manufacturing process. The Elfin manufacturing process also supports harder materials of a thicker gauge should the design requirements call for them.
The very nature of swaging fins onto the tubes means that the leading edge is always of hard fin material protecting tubes from impact damage. It is therefore perfectly viable to high pressure power wash our ElfinBlock either in situ or removed from site to clear the fins of any air-side fouling without significant damage.
The flatness of the fins and the accuracy of their spacing enable the use of vortex generators as fin enhancers. These have the advantage of increasing thermal efficiency with little effect on air-side pressure drop, facilitating less fins per inch and less chance of clogging. This reduces the need to clean the fins and hence the possibility to cause damage.
