A Wide Range Of Plate Or Shell And Tube Heat Exchangers To Choose

For onshore applications, many engine manufacturers choose air-cooled heat exchangers, but the marine market is driven by the availability of seawater as an abundant cooling medium...

For onshore applications, many engine manufacturers choose air-cooled heat exchangers, but the marine market is driven by the availability of seawater as an abundant cooling medium. Therefore, for jacket water and oil cooling, water-to-water exchange systems are widely used. These systems can be applied to a variety of circuit configurations, but the exchangers themselves are of two basic types: plate or shell and tube.

In recent years, the market for plate heat exchangers in marine applications has been growing, but the more traditional shell and tube cooler design remains popular. Plate exchangers consist of a set of thin corrugated plates that form separate cavities on either side of each plate for the cooling fluid and the cooling medium. Heat transfer is carried out through the plates themselves, and plate exchangers have a higher efficiency (or more accurately, effectiveness) than shell and tube exchangers of equivalent size. Variations in the design can incorporate fins to increase the efficiency of the system, but installation and maintenance costs are higher than for ordinary plate designs.

Shell and tube heat exchangers remain popular in marine applications and are relatively inexpensive to install. They are rugged and relatively easy to maintain, but may require more frequent attention if severe fouling occurs. The most common configuration is a tube bundle containing the fluid to be cooled, with the secondary cooling stream contained within the shell of the cooler. Single-pass designs are the simplest in operation, with the fluids having either a co-current or counter-current configuration depending on the exchanger duty requirements and fluid temperature. Multi-pass designs are also available. Plate and shell and tube coolers are available from many established companies and emerging manufacturers around the world. Headquartered in Jiangyin, China, UNO is now a leading supplier of heat exchange and other systems for the marine and offshore markets.

The company offers a wide range of plate heat exchangers for marine and other industries, including: