Heat Transfer Skid Packages

S&S Technical is a leading global supplier of fully automated heat exchanger skid packages. Our heat exchanger skids are fully automated with PLC and touch-screen HMI controls and engineered with the highest quality and safety standards in mind.

Packaged heat exchanger skids are used to isolate process fluid from cooling fluid. This is used in many manufacturing applications because the process fluid is generally contaminated, at a higher or lower temperature, and not compatible with the cooling fluid or equipment.

S&S Technical offers fully customizable solutions for this challenging process. Our heat exchanger skids are engineered with safety in mind and all systems meet or exceed all OSHA, government , and industry standards.

Heat exchangers

Heat exchangers are used in applications where heat must be transferred from one medium to another. This could mean heat added to a process medium (heating) or heat removed from a process medium (cooling). They’re used to heat/cool media without contaminating the process media. This article will cover 3 types of heat exchangers often found in industrial applications and we’ll discuss the typical applications they’re used in and pros and cons for each.

Air Cooled Heat Exchangers

An air cooled heat exchanger works much like the radiator in your car. The process media travels back and forth through a run of tubes that have fins on the tube’s exterior. A fan, typically operated by an electric motor, blows air across these finned tubes. The air moving across the tubes produces a cooling effect and cools the media flowing through the tubes. One of the benefits of this set up is it’s simplistic design as it doesn’t need another hot or cold media present to work like other heat exchangers do. The main con to this style is the amount of cooling possible is dependent upon the environmental conditions the exchanger sits in.

Let’s say you have hot water flowing through the tubes at 90F and you want to cool it down to 80F. The ambient air around the heat exchanger would typically need to be a few degrees cooler than 80F to do this effectively. If you’re in an environment where the ambient air is warmer than your target cooling temperature, this type of heat exchanger should not be utilized.

Plate and Frame Heat Exchangers

A plate and frame heat exchanger uses a series of plates and gaskets sandwiched together to allow two different media to pass by one another via a series of raceways throughout the plates. The plates are typically fairly thin and the amount of plates needed depends on the flow rates of both the process media and the heating/cooling media. This style of heat exchanger is often used in cooling applications where the process media is being cooled by a chilled media which is typically a mix of water and glycol.

A good example of this is a facility that has machinery they are needing to keep cool. The process media will flow through the machinery and then back through the heat exchanger in a closed loop set up. On the other side of the heat exchanger, chilled media at a typically much cooler temperature will be flowing. While the process media remains at a constant flow rate, the chilled media flow rate varies based on the demand required. This is usually accomplished with a flow control valve on the heat exchanger’s exiting port for the chilled media. A combination of pumps, temperature instrumentation, flow control valve, and designated set point work together to automatically chill the process media to the desired temp. These tend to be very efficient, but it does require an additional media unlike the air cooled heat exchanger.

Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

Shell and tube heat exchangers consist of a bundle of tubes that are placed inside of a cylindrical housing (shell). You can think of this kind of like a combination of the air cooled design and plate and frame design.  One media flows through the tubes while another media flows around the tubes through the shell. One of the biggest pros of this design is it’s ability to be used with higher pressure fluids/gasses.

These are often utilized in processes where a media is being heated with steam. In this scenario you’ll find a set up where the process media is flowing through the tube bundle and the steam if running through the shell. The steam heats the media in the tube bundles and then flows out of the shell outlet. The temperature of the steam decreases during this heat transfer and this causes some of the steam to condense which can be considered one drawback of this set up as it can require a condensate tank and pump to return back to the boiler.

Heat Transfer Skid Options and Features:

• Solid steel skid fabricated to ASME standards;
• Pressure Transducers;
• Temperature Sensors;
• Temperature Control Valves (electric / air actuated)
• Programmable Controller (for temperature controls);
• Electrical Panel made in-house at our automation facility;
• Control Bypass Valve;
• 3D modeling drawings of systems;
• Custom Paint or Finishing;
• Complete operation and owners manual.
• Start-up commissioning
• Extended Parts and Labor Warranty

Heat Transfer Skid Standards Met:

• Pipe fabrication to ASME B31 standards;
• Structural steel designed to AWS standards;
• Pressure vessel ASME standards;
• SolidWorks 3D modeling;
• AutoCad Mechanical & Electrical design.

Advantages of using S&S Technical:

• Full in-house one-stop-shop experience. Our mechanical and electrical engineers use the latest 2 and 3D CAD and SolidWorks software to design every system;
• Integrated Process Automation Controls, PLC’s and HMI’s;
• ASME Pipe fabrication, assembly, and testing are all done at our facility just north of Atlanta, Georgia;
• Turnkey systems provide a single point of contact for your entire project;
• All systems are FAT (Factory Acceptance Tested) in house and will meet all safety, government and industry regulations our clients project may require;
• Single point of contact for technical support, operator training and start up commissioning;
• Complete set of manuals for every piece of equipment and system;
• Reduced installation and start up time – ready to move product shortly after arriving on site;
• Reduced delivery lead times, project costs, improved accuracy.

Give us a call today at (678) 250-9507 for more information on heat exchanger skid packages for your next upcoming project or facility.