When speaking of Shell & Tube Exchangers, we tend to break them into "standard" and "custom" shell and tube exchangers. When we talk of tolerances of flow nozzles and support locations, those manufacturers that belong to TEMA (Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association) are expected to build each heat exchangers to within those accepted tolerance called out in TEMA.

See link below for TEMA Tolerances brochure.

Having published tolerances is most important for both the customer and the manufacturer, especially when speaking of "custom" heat exchangers as they are built to a fabrication drawing, without the use of a manufacturing "jig" or "fixture". Without the use of a jig or fixture, the skilled welder relies on measuring tools, which is fairly precise to the naked eye, but when measured exactly, the dimensions will not exact each time that part is manufactured. Building shell & tube exchangers with nozzle tolerances of +/- ¼” don’t tend to be an issue for process plant or system integrator customer’s as long as it is not more than the noted tolerance. In that instance it would need to be corrected, especially, for a TEMA Shop.

“Standard” heat exchangers tend to be built for OEM customers that rely on exacting dimensions for each delivery of the same shell & tube exchanger. In order to maintain quality assurance of each unit, the use of a jig or fixture to assist the skilled welder is a must. This will ensure each and every part, that is welded together, to make a shell & tube exchanger will have the very same dimension each time it is made. This allows customers to use a Thermal Products heat exchanger, with precision and speed in their product.

Having shell & tube exchanger's built to precise measurements is also import when looking to replace a heat exchanger in kind. In this case a Drop In Replacement tube bundle or complete heat exchanger is easiest for plant maintenance personal, hospital or school facility engineers, to install. It assures them that they will not need to make any required piping modifications on either the tube side or shell side.

Thermal Products offers Drop in Replacement heat exchanger and tube bundles for a wide range of heat exchanger manufactures. In most cases, Thermal Products will have the needed equipment to manufacturer a NEW heat exchanger or tube bundle that will fit right into place of the old heat exchanger you are removing. If we don’t, we will advise you during the quoting phase and include freight, in our proposal, for you to ship your old heat exchanger to us for duplicating.

If your heat exchanger is custom and can’t ship it to our facility for duplicating, but have a fabrication drawing, we can offer and build a NEW heat exchanger to your fabrication drawing. Please see our latest Drop In Replacement heat exchanger shipment below.

Titanium TEMA Type AET ready for Shipment

Thermal Products was approached by a chemical company to design an Acetic Acid heater using 450 Thermal Oil. Heating Acetic Acid to a precise process temperature is key in the manufacturing insulated boxes.

Thermal Products designed a TEMA Type AET with a titanium tube side, meaning titanium tubes, titanium baffles and bundle supports, titanium tube sheets, titanium channel head, titanium reversing bonnet and titanium tube side connections.

A TEMA Type AET, is designed with a front channel head with channel cover, which enables the tube side of the heat exchanger to be cleaned without breaking or removing any of the piping. See figure "A" below.

The backend or rear bonnet was designed with a pull through floating head. This design takes into account thermal expansion and the ability to have a straight tube design with a removeable tube bundle. See Figure "T" above.

If you have an application that would require higher alloy materials, contact Thermal Products via phone, email, website inquiry form or chat feature on our website.

Click here to be taken to our contact information page

A local distributor was looking for three replacement tube bundles for Thrush Heat Exchanger Model S1848(2).  Thermal Products offered our exact duplicate tube bundle Model TBU-18-48-2 with .049 wall copper tubes. 

Thermal Products manufacturers drop in repalcement tube bundles for many shell and tube heat exchanger manufacturers, such as Armstrong heat exchangers, Taco heat exchangers, Bell & Gossett heat exchangers, Yula heat exchangers, Patterson Kelly heat exchangers, Basco heat exchangers, ITT heat exchangers, Xylem heat exchangers, Standard Exchange heat exchangers, American Standard heat exchangers and many more.

All Thermal Products replacement tube bundles meet OEM specifications and in many cases, surpass.  Contact us today for your quote!

Above is a before and after picture of an old, tired heat exchanger and a new drop in replacement shell & tube exchanger that Thermal Products Inc designed and supplied as a drop in replacement heat exchanger to replace a modified Taco “E” BEU series heat exchanger. After meeting with the customer, a local state government, Thermal Products was able to offer one of our “Drop In Replacement” Heat Exchangers so piping changes would NOT be necessary. All critical center line dimensions were held.

Thermal Products offered a TPI-BEU-26-84-2, which is a 26” diameter shell, 84” tube length U-tube bundle, 2 pass tube side arrangement for steam to water application. We offered an all carbon steel constructed shell and head with ¾”, .049 wall copper tubes. The heat exchanger was built to ASME Code and stamped for 150 PSIG @ 375F. Higher temperature and pressure available upon request.

Although we supplied standard materials of carbon steel and copper tubing, Thermal Products, can readily supply Stainless steel shells and heads and stainless steel tubing, Cupro-Nickel tubing, admiralty tubing, Hastelloy, Titanium, AL-6XN among more.

If your shell and head or bonnet are in good condition, we can simply offer a replacement tube bundle instead.  Replacing your tube bundle only with one of Thermal Products quality Drop In Replacement Tube bundles would make your project far less difficult and time consuming.  In most cases, a Thermal Products replacement tube bundle comes with a .049 tube wall thickness, when most OEM tube bundles are supplied with .035 wall tubing, making your Thermal Products tube bundle more forgiving to tube side erosion from particulate in your water.  Simply call your local Thermal Products office with your heat exchanger model number or picture of your heat exchanger nameplate and we’ll provide a quote to you, in most cases, the same day.  All Thermal Products tube bundles come with gaskets.

All of our “Drop In Replacement” Heat Exchangers and Tube Bundles can fit identically to any of the heat exchangers made by Taco, Armstrong, Bell & Gossett, Thrush, ITT, Basco, Adamson, American Standard, Yula, Patterson-Kelly and many more, saving your company money and man hours.  Contact us today!

Visit our webpage for more information.

HC Heat Exchanger

The Basco Type 500 and HC Series shell & tube heat exchanger offers the widest variety of options for utilizing water or water/glycol for many cooling applications such as cooling compressor lube oil, cooling compressed air, engine lube oil cooling, blow mold cooling, extruder cooling and CNC cutting oil cooling to name a few. It remains the industry standard in ultimate value and long-term reliability. The proven fixed tubesheet design shell and tube heat exchanger offers the cost effectiveness that comes with having a highly standard design, while easily providing for various options to meet specific application requirements. Multiple material options are available as well. This series includes seventeen models with air flow capacities from 75-1500 SCFM (2.12-42.48 SCMM) or oil flow from 7-105 GPM (27-397 LPM) and heat rejection from 14-281 HP (10.4-209.5 KW).

Features

Preferred for new oil-water applications
Rugged steel construction
Low cost
NPT, SAE O-Ring, SAE flange, or BSPP shell side connections available
End bonnets removable for servicing
Mounting feet included (may be rotated in 90° increments)

Product Options

Optional material construction on tubes, tubesheets and end bonnets

Customer Focused and Driven

All catalog product is available with short lead-times
Expert application engineers are available to select and size the right product for your application
Custom designs are available

ASME Code Stamped available

Ratings

Maximum Operating Pressure - Shell Side 300 PSI*
Maximum Operating Pressure - Tube Side 150 PSI
Maximum Operating Temperature 300°F

Materials

Tubes - Copper
Tubesheet - Carbon steel
Shell - Carbon steel
Baffles - Carbon steel
End Bonnets - Cast iron
Mounting Brackets - Carbon steel
Gaskets - Nitrile rubber/cellulose fiber
Nameplate - Aluminum foil

Models

Application Spotlight: Batch Process Water Heating

Thermal Products Inc was asked to design a Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger within a certain footprint as it needed to fit within our customer’s packaged heating system. We offered to design and build an all 316 Stainless Steel Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger, but our customer requested 304 Stainless Steel Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger instead. Our customer also requested the tube side connections of our shell & tube heat exchanger to be Tri Clamp connections for ease of cleaning the heat exchanger.

The design parameters for the project were to heat 300 gallons of process water from 60 degrees Celsius to 80 degrees Celsius in 15 minutes or less. Our customer’s control package needed to maintain tight temperature control with a +/- .5 degrees Celsius discharge temperature variance for their exacting process downstream. The circulating process water flow rate for each batch will be 120 gallons per minute (GPM)

The 304 Stainless Steel Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger was designed to be a 08024, Type BEU with 304 stainless steel tubes and a 2-pass tube side design. The thermal duty was achieved using 387 lb/hr of steam and was built to ASME Code Section 8, division 1 and TEMA C.

Thermal Products sales and design engineers can design a fully customized heat exchanger to your exacting specifications or an "off the shelf" design for quick shipment and installation.  Thermal Products can supply the heat exchanger alone or integrate it into a skidded package with controls, valves and pump(s) on a skid enabling a more "plug and play" design, significantly reducing our customers installation costs.

Contact us today to discuss your application!

We understand the need for quick response times in all facets of the industrial and process market.  As your local INDEECO Electric Process Heater expert, we are pleased to announce our ability to offer approval drawing in 1 week!  Contact us today to discuss your application.

Thermal Products was approached by a regional Paper Mill to design a Semi Instantaneous Process Water Heater utilizing excess steam to trim heat process water for a new product line which required a slightly higher water temperature than what existed already.

Thermal Products designed a skid package that included the following equipment:

• Skid Assembly  
• U-Tube Heat Exchanger ASME Code Stamped, Model TPI-06-048-2P to heat 62 GPM water from 35.5F to 68F using 50 psi steam 
• 3" Steam Valve
• 1-1/2" Steam Trap
• 3" 150# Y-Strainer
• Check Valve
• 150# Class Butterfly Valves
• High Temperature Limit Aquastat
• Temperature Relief Valve
• Temperature Controller from Johnson Controls
• Spool pieces and piping
• Painted

Skid package was then painted to custoemr specifications with a 2 part epoxy

Thermal Products can also offer the following equipment for a skid package to fit your specific application.

• Pump
• Shell & Tube Exchanger
• Plate & Frame Exchanger
• Electric Circulation Heater
• Air Cooled Exchanger
• Isolation Valves
• Controls package
• Control Panel
• Various Materials of Construction