Thanks to Garry Folds from Alfa Laval for providing our ITS engineers with invaluable expertise and knowledge on the servicing of plate and gasket heat exchangers.
The aim of the training session was to gain some more hands-on experience with overcoming challenges whilst carrying out servicing and maintenance on plate and gasket heat exchangers, and on this occasion, it was performed on a TL6-BFM unit.
Safeer Hussain BEng took part in the session and describes what they covered:
‘’Before loosening the tightening bolts, we checked the A dimension was as per the drawing so when we replace the plates and re tighten the unit, we can be sure the A dimension is correct, and the unit hasn’t been opened and put back together incorrectly prior to us opening it. We cleaned and greased the locking bolts and the carrying bar to allow for easy removal of the pressure plate and the plate pack.
We carefully removed each plate in a safe manner and subsequently learnt how to correctly re install the plates onto the carrying bar.
We understood how to read the plate list and how to align and re install each plate in the correct orientation to ensure the products flowing through the heat exchanger follow the correct heating/cooling path.
Also, when re assembling the plate pack it is hugely important to ensure all the gaskets are sitting correctly before tightening the bolts as this can cause for the gaskets to deform, for the plates to not seal against each other correctly and ultimately the HX would leak during production’’
Saf also commented:
‘’We combined the theory with the practical and were able to understand all the components that make up the HX and more interestingly we were able to understand the low and high theta plates and how this influences the heat transfer rate, turbulence, shear stresses all which are important to take into consideration when sizing heat exchangers. As well as the channels different combinations of the plates combined create and how these influence heat transfer.’’
Another successful training session!
Need a heat exchanger service? Contact us on 01675 465191 / sales@industrialtradingsolutions.com
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