Spiral Plate Condenser

Spiral Plate Heat Exchanger

Spiral plate heat exchangers, proven through years of practical use, are a type of heat exchange equipment suitable for applications in industries such as chemicals, petroleum, solvents, food, light industry, textiles, metallurgy, rolling steel, and coking.
The rigid spiral plate heat exchanger is designed according to the JB/TQ724-89 standard for rigid spiral plate heat exchangers. It features simple manufacturing, low cost, compact size, and good heat transfer performance. However, it has its limitations, such as the inability to be mechanically cleaned and difficulty in repair when damaged. Users should select the appropriate equipment based on the specific project requirements to ensure its effectiveness.

Structure and Performance
1. This equipment is suitable for liquid-liquid, gas-gas, and gas-liquid heat transfer, which can be used for steam condensation and liquid evaporation heat transfer. It is applicable in various industrial sectors such as chemicals, petroleum, machinery, electricity, light industry, and textiles.
2. This equipment is made from two steel plates rolled into two even spiral channels, allowing for full counter-current flow with two heat transfer cutoffs. It is suitable for heat transfer with small temperature differences, facilitates the recovery of low-temperature heat sources, and can accurately control the outlet temperature.
3. The pipe connection on the housing is a tangential structure, featuring low local resistance. The helical channel has a uniform curvature, allowing the fluid to flow within the equipment without significant direction changes. As a result, the total resistance is reduced, enabling an increased design flow rate to achieve high heat transfer capabilities.
4. The ends of the spiral channel are welded for a sealed closure, offering excellent sealing performance and a reliable structure.
5. Difficult to repair, especially when internal plates are damaged, which is hard to fix. Some factories remove all the welds at both ends of the equipment, flatten the plates and re-weld them before rolling them back. This process consumes an excessive amount of labor hours. It is of great importance to use spiral plate heat exchangers for corrosion prevention.
6. Not suitable for mechanical cleaning; production practice has proven that spiral plate heat exchangers are less prone to clogging compared to traditional tube bundle heat exchangers. Particularly, suspended particles like silt and small shells are not easily deposited in the spiral channels. The reasons are: one, the single-channel design allows for the formation of a circulating flow that helps flush out the deposits; two, there are no dead corners in the spiral channels, making it easier for impurities to be washed out.
7. Due to the presence of spacer columns within the helical channels that support the spacing, no fibrous impurities (cotton yarn, straw sticks, leaves, etc.) should enter the heat exchanger.
8. Strictly control the outlet temperature of the cooling water below the scaling temperature.
9. Common cleaning methods include steam blowing or alkali washing. Steam should be blown into the intake to expel impurities from the equipment, and many manufacturers find this to be an effective approach.

Detachable Spiral Plate Heat Exchangers (Type II, Type III)
The structural principle is essentially the same as that of a non-separable heat exchanger, but the channels can be disassembled for cleaning and both ends are sealed with head covers. Particularly suitable for liquid-to-liquid exchanges involving sticky or sediment-containing fluids, as well as gas-liquid and steam condensation. Due to the additional components such as head covers and flanges required for the removable heat exchanger, the equipment cost is slightly higher than that of the non-separable type.

Basic Parameters
The nominal pressure PN for spiral plate heat exchangers is specified as 0.6, 1, 1.6, and 2.5 MPa (equivalent to the original 6, 10, 16, and 25 kg/cm²), with the test pressure being 1.25 times the working pressure.
The material for the contact part of the spiral plate heat exchanger with the medium is carbon steel Q235A, Q235AF, and stainless acid steel SUS321, SUS304. Other materials can be selected according to customer requirements.
Allowable working temperature: Carbon steel t=0～+350°C, stainless steel and acid steel t=-40～500°C, the range of temperature and pressure reduction shall be in accordance with the relevant regulations for pressure vessels. When selecting this equipment, proper process calculations should be made to ensure the fluid in the equipment passage reaches turbulent flow. (Typically, liquid flow velocity is 1m/Sec, gas flow velocity is 10m/Sec).
A single unit does not meet the usage requirements; multiple units can be combined for use. However, the following regulations must be adhered to when combining:
Parallel and Series Combinations: Same spacing between equipment and channels. Mixed Combination: One channel in parallel, one channel in series.
Stainless acid-resistant steel PN0.6, 1.6MPa non-detachable (Type I) spiral plate heat exchanger.

Technical Specifications