Air to air heat exchangers are closed loop cooling systems that employ heat pipe mechanisms to transfer heat from an electrical casing to the outside. Where ambient temperature is suitable for heat piping, air to air heat exchangers are an efficient way of cooling since the unwanted heat is the engine that drives the system. Read More…
Leading Manufacturers
Enerquip, LLC
Medford, WI | 715-748-5888Enerquip is your trusted shell and tube heat exchanger partner. Our in-house, thermal design engineers and ASME welders and fabricators can design and build custom engineered solutions for your company’s specific needs. Our experience and expertise have earned us a preferred supplier status with leading companies in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, cannabis, personal care, chemical, refining, and renewable energy markets. When you need a solution that is guaranteed to work, trust the helpful heat exchanger experts at Enerquip.
Mason Manufacturing LLC
Decatur, IL | 217-422-2770Mason Manufacturing is a custom fabricator of shell and tube heat exchangers, ASME pressure vessels, columns, and tanks. Located in Decatur, Illinois, Mason has over 60 years of experience providing customers with custom fabricated vessels that conform to customer specifications, applicable codes, accepted industry standards and that are consistently shipped on time with competitive pricing. It’s our promise.
CG Thermal LLC
Twinsburg, OH | 330-405-0844CG Thermal LLC is a customer focused, technology driven, solution oriented company. We provide process technology solutions for harsh and corrosive process streams. Our services range from providing customer specific process equipment and technical support to consulting and turn-key engineered solutions.
Xchanger Inc.
Hopkins, MN | 952-933-2559Xchanger, leading manufacturer of industrial air cooled & liquid cooled heat exchangers for faster, safer & more cost efficient processes, offers 10 standard heat exchanger & blower aftercooler lines. Using proven designs optimized for your specific demands & built-to-order, Xchanger prides itself on custom & completely unique configurations utilizing fin-tube or fin-plate heat transfer surfaces.
AGC Heat Transfer
Bristow, VA | 703-257-1660Since 1991, AGC Heat Transfer has been producing sanitary plate frame heat exchangers. We offer regasketing for all makes and models of plate heat exchangers. AGC provides replacement parts or frames if your heat exchanger needs repair or upgrading and do field leak checks and upgrades.
Cust-O-Fab
Sand Springs, OK | 918-245-6685CUST-O-FAB has been a trusted leader in the heat exchanger industry since 1972. Our years of experience have equipped us with the talent and skills to manufacture the best heat exchangers in the industry. We are dedicated to advancing our company and creating innovative strategies and solutions.
What are Air To Air Heat Exchangers?
The only requirement to operate the two circulating blowers or fans is power. Air to air heat exchangers offer a novel and inexpensive way of cooling closed-loop enclosures. Apart from air circulation fans, exchangers utilize no power and are quite quiet in operation. In many cases, they provide a viable substitute for enclosure air conditioners.
How Does an Air To Air Heat Exchanger Function?
Air to air heat exchangers use heat pipes to move heat from hot enclosures to the cool ambient air. The heat pipes are evacuated tubes occupied by a special refrigerant fluid. This refrigerant boils while absorbing heat energy from the hot air inside the enclosure.
The resultant vapor escalates to the top of the tubes and condenses because of the cool ambient air while releasing its heat, a continuously repeated procedure.
How to Choose an Air to Air Heat Exchanger
To choose the most efficient type of enclosure cooling system, several factors must be considered:
- Heat loss from electronic components inside the enclosure
- Maximum ambient temperature
- Required internal enclosure temperature
- Dimensions of the enclosure to be cooled
- Available mounting space for cooling devices
- Type of environment to place the enclosure
- Required operating voltage for the cooling product
The final operating environment differs from user to user or might not be known, but it is pertinent to know extra elements beyond total ambient temperature.
Important factors to consider include sanitation of external air, cost and complexity of maintenance, physical space margins, noise limit, the potential for hose-directed spray close to the cooling product, possible magnetic interference from fans’ motors, and possible exposure to cold temperatures, rain and blowing dust.
Types of Air to Air Heat Exchangers
Types of air to air heat exchangers include:
Plate Types
Plate-type air to air heat exchangers offer a low-cost and effective answer to reduce heat and cool loads in the treatment of process air. The plates on the air to air heat exchanger physically separate the supplied and exhausted air, with the supplied air moving on one side and the exhaust air moving on the other. The exhaust air is utilized to precool or preheat incoming air supplies without mixing the air streams.
There are two differences in the plate type air to air heat exchangers, which offer a range of benefits. These include:
Dimple Plate Heat Exchanger
These have improved versatility and toughness for heavy-duty applications. The dimples on the plates enable the heat exchangers to sustain low pressure drop and enhance turbulence. The flat plates and the dependable dimple patterns allow easy cleaning and maintenance.
Wave Plate Heat Exchangers
These are a welded metal heat exchanger that combines an inline dimple pattern and wave patterns on the plates. This combination enables the heat exchangers to bring more turbulence and structural integrity while maintaining a low pressure drop. They also have heavy-duty plates that are simple to clean.
Tube Types
These accommodate higher pressure and temperature than wheel and plate types. They are also a perfect choice for environments that are prone to dustiness or have a high particle concentration in the air.
Shell and tube air to air heat exchangers offer optimal performance for recuperating valuable heat energy from ovens, dryers, kilns, and furnaces.
Wheel Types
They have a space-saving design, offering higher efficiency for their volume than larger plate types of heat exchangers. The spinning wheel’s prolonged surface makes contact with heat from the exhaust and then transfers it to the cool incoming air, though each stream stays separate. Wheel-type heat exchangers are appropriate for hot and cold air ducts.
Applications of Air to Air Heat Exchangers
A variety of industries depend on air to air heat exchangers to gather heat energy lost in heating applications. They are important to various industrial applications, recuperating heat to save energy, lower expenses, and improve operational efficiency. Some of the applications of tube and plate types include:
- Heat recovery
- Air handling units
- Airstreams de-humidification
- Electrical equipment cooling
- Drying rooms or kilns heat recycle
- Oven heat recovery
- Boiler flue economizers
- Combustion air preheating
- Catalytic oxidizers
- Process air cooling
- Thermal oxidizers
- Spray dryers
- Gas cooling or condensing
