Spiral Plate Heat Exchanger

The spiral plate heat exchanger, proven over many years of practical use, is indeed a heat exchange device suitable for applications in industries such as chemicals, petrochemicals, solvents, food, light industry, textiles, metallurgy, rolling steel, and coking. The heat exchanger absorbs advanced international technology, and is uniquely optimized and manufactured into a liquid-liquid and vapor-water heat exchanger. The spiral plate end faces are welded using a beveled argon arc welding process, and the "top distance column" technology is used for the capacitor storage contactor, enhancing both the internal and external quality to gain approval from Baosteel and able to replace imports.
The rigid spiral plate heat exchanger is designed according to the form of the rigid spiral plate heat exchanger specified in the machinery department standard JB/TQ724-89, with basic parameters and dimensions. It features simple manufacturing, low cost, small size, and excellent heat transfer performance. However, it also has its limitations, such as being unable to undergo mechanical cleaning and being difficult to repair if damaged. The selector should choose the specific equipment based on the actual situation of the project 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 in industries such as chemicals, petrochemicals, machinery, electricity, light industry, and textiles.
2. This equipment is made from two steel plates rolled into two even spiral channels, allowing for full countercurrent 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 transition on the housing is tangential, with minimal local resistance. The helical channel has a uniform curvature, and there is no significant direction change of the fluid within the equipment. The total resistance is low, thus allowing for an increased design flow rate, which enhances its heat transfer capability.
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 have issues that are 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 time, and it's important to choose spiral plate heat exchangers for their corrosion resistance.
6. Mechanical cleaning is not recommended. Production practice has shown that spiral plate heat exchangers are less prone to clogging compared to conventional tube bundle heat exchangers. This is especially true for suspended particles such as silt and small shells, which are not easily deposited in the spiral channels. The analysis of the reasons includes: Firstly, the single-channel design of the exchanger ensures that the sedimentation of impurities is quickly flushed away by the circulating flow. Secondly, the absence of dead corners in the spiral channels makes it easy for impurities to be flushed out.
7. Due to the presence of spacer columns within the helical channels to maintain 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 inlet to expel impurities from the equipment. Many users believe 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-detachable heat exchanger, but its channels can be disassembled for cleaning, and both ends are sealed with heads. 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 like heads and flanges required for the detachable heat exchanger, the equipment cost is slightly higher than that of a non-detachable heat exchanger.

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), which refers to the working pressure of a single channel. The test pressure is 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 steel 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 comply with the relevant regulations for pressure vessels. When selecting this equipment, appropriate process calculations should be made to ensure the fluid within the equipment channel reaches turbulent flow. (Typically, liquid velocity is 1m/s, gas velocity is 10m/s).
  Each individual unit does not meet the usage requirements; multiple units can be combined for use, but they must adhere to the following specifications:
Parallel and Series Combinations: Same spacing between equipment and channels. Mixed Combination: One channel in parallel, one channel in series.
Stainless steel, acid-resistant PN 0.6, 1.6 MPa, non-detachable (Type I) spiral plate heat exchanger.

Technical Specifications