For HRS Heat Exchangers international sales and marketing director Matt Hale, a bespoke solution rather than one off-the-shelf can often end up being a more cost effective option. “No two industrial processes or production lines are the same. A standard off-the-shelf piece of equipment for a customised process can be counter productive but is still common practice," Hale says.
“For example, a multitube heat exchanger for the pasteurisation of thin sauces, such as stocks or consommé, is specified for thicker products like soup or pizza topping, for which it is completely unsuitable. The effects of using the wrong heat exchanger can range from the inconvenient to disastrous,” HRS says.
Although based on standard tube architecture (for example the tube-in-tube DTA Series or DTI Series, or the multi-tube K Series or MI Series), every HRS heat exchanger is designed to meet the specific heat transfer and product handling requirements of an installation – itself a level of bespoke design.
Each HRS heat exchanger is designed according to a wide range of parameters. These include chemical and physical assessments of the product (and sometimes the service fluid) to understand its thermal characteristics, flow rate, viscosity, fouling potential, and biological loading, etc.
Hale says HRS considers the heat difference required and the operational temperatures of the product and service fluid, as well as the required pressure drop, necessary treatment times (for pasteurisation applications for example), and other process requirements.
