Crossflow welded plate exchangers, originally invented by Vicarb in the early 1990's has gained acceptance more and more as a replacement for traditional shell and tube applications in many industries including oil and gas, edible oils and margarine along with the power industry. This style of heat exchanger has a large stack of corrugated welded plates and can be configured to have any number of passes on either side. This configuration allows it to achieve very high heat transfer coefficients similar to a traditional gasketed plate. The fact that it has only 4 full faced graphite gaskets on each of the four panels makes it perfect for high temperatures or applications where inter-plate elastomer gaskets are not suitable. The four panels remove easily and the plates have a clear clearance gap making them easy to clean with high pressure spraying. In summary, this exchanger is perfect for energy recovery applications.
