The plates showed in this new video on our Tempco YouTube channel are very particular plates for plate heat exchangers, characterized by very wide channels. These are called Free flow plates, indeed having large channels and having no contact points.

Usually, plate heat exchangers increase their thermal transfer efficiency when the number of contact points between the plates increases, thus increasing the turbulence rate of fluids. But these contact points also become spots for the settlement of dirt, when the exchangers work with dirty fluids rich in suspended particles.

Free flow plate heat exchangers were then born in order to avoid this problem. In Tempco we’ve recently supplied a couple of free flow exchangers with DN150 connections aimed at cooling water for die plates in wire drawing of plastic materials. In fact, during the wire drawing process, a plastic material wire comes out of the wire plate and gets collected in a tank containing cooling water. The plastic wire then proceeds to the cutting section, where plastic granules are produced.

Cooling water then becomes clearly full of plastic dusts and plastic chips. Using traditional plate heat exchangers in this particular application, the exchangers would become clogged in a very short time lapse.

Stay updated on the latest applications of thermal energy management by subscribing our monthly Tempco Newsletter – Solid Temperature.