Gasketed, brazed and welded plate exchangers for cooling water, seawater, lube oil and process duty. Supplied by AMI Exchangers as new units or as direct replacements for Alfa Laval, APV, SPX, GEA and Tranter units, and supported in the GCC by Petromarsh.
Tap a part to see what it does. The red line is the hot fluid, the blue line the cold fluid. They flow in alternate channels, in opposite directions.
Fixed frame plate. The heavy stationary end plate. It carries the four ports, so all piping connects on one side and the pack can be opened without disturbing it.
Plate pack. Thin pressed plates with a chevron pattern. Each gap between two plates is a flow channel, and hot and cold channels alternate through the pack.
Gaskets. An elastomer gasket on every plate seals the channel and decides which fluid enters it. Gaskets are glued or clipped into a groove pressed into the plate.
Pressure plate. The movable end plate. It hangs on the carrying bar and is pulled toward the frame plate to compress the pack.
Tie bolts. Long bolts that clamp the pack between the frame and pressure plates. They are tightened to the pack length on the nameplate, so the gaskets seal evenly.
Carrying and guiding bars. The top bar carries the weight of the plates and the bottom bar keeps them in line. The support column holds the far end, and the free length lets the plates slide apart for cleaning.
Ports. Four corner holes run through the whole pack and form the inlet and outlet manifolds. Nozzles on the frame plate connect them to your piping.
A stack of thin pressed metal plates is clamped between two heavy frame plates. Gaskets or welds seal each gap, so the hot and cold fluids flow in alternate channels. Heat passes through the thin plate from one fluid to the other.
Each plate is pressed with a chevron (herringbone) pattern. The corrugations make the flow turbulent even at low velocity, and the plates touch and support each other against pressure.
Ports in the four corners feed the channels. The gasket on each plate lets one fluid into that channel and seals the other out, so the two fluids alternate through the pack and never mix.
Tie bolts pull the pressure plate toward the frame plate and compress the gaskets. To clean a gasketed unit you loosen the bolts and slide the plates apart. To add duty you hang more plates.
All plate exchangers use thin pressed plates. They differ in how the plates are sealed: gaskets, brazing, welding, or a pressure shell. The seal sets the pressure, temperature and fluids each type can take.
Plates with elastomer gaskets clamped in a bolted frame. The unit opens for mechanical cleaning, and plates can be added or replaced one at a time.
Central cooling systems on GCC platforms and power plants, with titanium plates against seawater.
Stainless plates brazed together in a vacuum furnace with copper or nickel. With no frame and no gaskets it is very compact and takes higher pressure than a gasketed unit of its size. It cannot be opened, so it is cleaned chemically.
Chillers, hydraulic power units and small skid coolers.
Plates are welded together in pairs to form sealed cassettes for the aggressive fluid. The other fluid flows between the cassettes in normal gasketed channels, so that side can still be opened and cleaned.
Ammonia refrigeration and gas plant chillers.
Plates welded into a pack and housed in a bolted frame or pressure casing. Without gaskets it takes higher pressure and temperature, and solvents that attack elastomers. Some designs have removable panels so the channels can be inspected and cleaned.
Refinery and petrochemical duties where a gasketed unit is not allowed.
Round plates are welded into a pack and placed inside a cylindrical shell, which carries the pressure like a shell-and-tube. It combines plate-type heat transfer with high pressure ratings, and some designs let the pack slide out of the shell.
Gas cooling and heat recovery where a gasketed frame cannot meet the pressure.
Plates with fewer contact points and wider channels, so fluids with fibres, slurries or particles pass without blocking. It keeps much of the compact size of a plate exchanger on fluids that would block a standard plate.
Produced water and dirty utility water where a standard plate would foul.
In a plate exchanger the plate and the gasket decide the life of the unit. In the Gulf the usual enemies are seawater, chlorides and high cooling water temperatures.
| Part | Standard duty | Seawater and chlorides | Aggressive process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plates | Stainless steel 304 or 316SA-240 · AISI 316 | Titanium grade 1 or 2, or SMO 254SB-265 · UNS S31254 | Hastelloy C-276, nickel or Incoloy 825UNS N10276 · N02200 · N08825 |
| Gaskets | NBR for water and oil, EPDM for hot water and steamglued or clip-on | NBR or EPDM, chosen for the temperatureglued or clip-on | FKM (Viton) for acids and hot oil, HNBR for hot oilor a welded design |
| Frame | Painted carbon steelS355 · SA-516 | Epoxy-coated carbon steel for offshorestainless cladding option | Carbon steel frame, alloy only where wettedport liners |
| Connections | Studded ports with metal or rubber liners, or flanged nozzles to your piping classASME B16.5 · EN 1092-1 | ||
The datasheet names the code. We follow it, plus your company specification where one applies.
Plate-and-frame heat exchangers for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas service: design, materials, fabrication, inspection and testing.
Pressure vessel rules for the frame, plate pack and nozzles, with code stamping where required.
CE marking for Europe. UKCA under the Pressure Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 for the UK.
Performance rating of liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers, used to certify the thermal rating of plate units.
Stainless, titanium and nickel alloy sheet used for plates.
Nozzle flange ratings and dimensions, matched to your piping class.
Material limits for equipment exposed to hydrogen sulphide.
Certified mill certificates for plates and pressure parts, and a hydrostatic test record.
Company specifications applied on top of API 662 and the vessel code.
Your engineers red-line our drawings, you approve the design twice before production starts, and you can witness the tests. Tap a step to see what happens and which documents you receive.
AMI Exchangers designs and builds plate and shell-and-tube exchangers, both new and as replacements, and has completed more than 25,000 projects. Petromarsh is their exclusive representative in the GCC, and supplies plate units as direct replacements for Alfa Laval, APV, SPX, GEA and Tranter.
For a replacement, the nameplate and a photo of the frame are often enough to identify the plate. For a new unit, the items on the right are enough for us to size it and reply with a proposal.
