Chemical & process
Plate heat exchangers for chemical and process industries
Chemical and process plants use plate heat exchangers to heat, cool and recover heat from process liquids — where getting the plate and gasket materials right is as important as the thermal design.
Overview
Materials first
Process media can be corrosive, hot or hazardous. A plate that suits water may pit or crack on a chloride-bearing stream, and a gasket compound that suits one chemical may swell or harden on another.
Before supplying plates or gaskets, we check the media on each side, the temperatures and the pressures, so replacement parts suit the actual duty — not just the part number on the old unit.
Applications
Common heat-transfer applications
01
Process heating and cooling
Bringing process liquids to the right temperature.
02
Product cooling
Cooling finished product before storage or packing.
03
Heat recovery
Transferring heat between process streams to save energy.
04
Solvent and liquid cooling
Cooling solvents and other process liquids.
05
Utility circuits
Cooling-water and heating-water circuits serving the plant.
Challenges
Operating challenges we plan for
- Corrosive media and the risk of plate pitting or cracking
- Gasket compatibility with chemicals and temperatures
- The safety and environmental consequences of a leak
- Continuous operation and short shutdowns
- Fouling from process streams
Services
Relevant services
- Workshop servicing — strip-down, crack testing and rebuild
- Cleaning & regasketing — cleaning and regasketing
- Maintenance programs — servicing planned into shutdowns
- On-site servicing — inspection and leak detection on site
Products & parts
Suitable equipment and parts
Maintenance
Maintenance considerations
Things to plan for on chemical and process duties:
- Confirm plate and gasket materials whenever the process media changes
- Crack test plates at each workshop service
- Hold gasket sets for critical units ahead of shutdowns
- Record the media and conditions for every unit so parts can be specified correctly
FAQ
Common questions
Which gasket material should we use?
It depends on the media, temperature and pressure on each side. Tell us all of them and we’ll recommend a compound — NBR, EPDM and Viton (FKM) are the most common.
Can you match the original plate material?
Send us the nameplate and any datasheet. We’ll confirm the plate material and check it still suits your media.
Get in touch
Tell us about your application
Share the duty, the media and the operating environment, and we’ll recommend a practical option.