[Case Study] Performance gained by revamping an autoclave.
A Platular® heat exchanger with a double hot/cold plate pack allowed our industrial textile dye client to double their productivity and to improve quality when they renovated their installation.
[Case Study] Performance gained by revamping an autoclave
A Platular® heat exchanger with a double hot/cold plate pack allowed our industrial textile dye client to double their productivity and to improve quality when they renovated their installation.
French expert in canvas covering, our industrial customer uses autoclaves to dye top of the range fabrics intended for the clothing market.
Heat exchangers come into play here by reheating the vapor and cooling the dye bath via the network’s water. The process involves a rapid yet incremental heating of the dye bath up to 130°C then cooling at a controlled speed, these two phases are now taken care of by one single heat exchanger.
The project: revamping to gain performance!
The customer’s project included a renovation of their installation with the preservation of the autoclaves already in position and the replacement of several tubular heat exchangers.
A heat exchanger which manages hot and cold is subjected to cycles and therefore repeated dilations which weaken it and provoke frequent damages, in particular to welded connections, which was the case with the existing tubular heat exchangers. These breakdowns cause performance loss, additional maintenance costs, factory down time…
Our solution: a double beam Platular® heat exchanger
The welded plate Platular® heat exchanger that we designed for this revamping integrates 2 bundles in a single shell: each bundle works on its unique function, one warms, the other one cools.
Impossible with tubular heat exchangers, this solution considerably increases the heat exchanger’s longevity and resistance because it is no longer subjected to the hot/cold cycles.
Furthermore, each beam was sized for its function, with an optimal heat exchange surface. Thanks to the thermal efficiency of our Platular® technology, more performant than that of a tubular, the speed of the dye bath heat build was doubled (4°/min. VS 2°/min. before).
The performance gains allowed our client to double their production capacity by improving quality and reducing maintenance and breakdown risks to a minimum.
