businessIndustry Information

Coil Heat Exchangers

Coil heat exchangers are one of the many devices in the heat exchanger family. Like their relatives, they work increase or decrease the heat of fluids. They may facilitate exchanges between two liquids, a liquid and a gas or vapor or two gases or vapors. Coil heat exchangers, again, like many of their cousins, are built to disallow any physical contact between the substance being cooled and the substance doing the cooling. In doing so, they prevent contamination. Coil exchangers take their name from their coil shape, which is created when the coil material is wound around an invisible core, with the tube piled on top of itself like a snake. Other names for coils used in coil heat exchangers include HVAC air coils, air coils and, in vehicles, heater cores.

Coils may be serpentine, helical, coaxial or completely customized. One of the most common coil designs involves the following: First, one end of the pipe is attached to the main body of the coil in order to feed it. Meanwhile, after the desired coil size has been reached, the other end of the pipe is sent through the middle of the coil heat exchanger. Here, much like the first end of the pipe, it connects to the heat exchanger pump, which circulates the heating or cooling substance through the coiled tube. Because this system creates constant circulation within a confined space and its every detail has been planned to improve the heating and cooling process, it proves to be very effective and efficient. Another reason that coil heat exchangers is that they have larger heat transfer areas, created by large number of tube coils arranged near each other. These close knit communities of coils translates to more lightweight, compact systems.

The effectiveness and efficiency achieved by coil heat exchangers are system qualities sought after by manufacturers and operators of many commercial, industrial and residential applications. For this reason, coil heat exchangers are important elements of many machines and systems, especially those related to chemical processing, power generation, air drying and tempering and vehicle operation. Applications that are particularly dependent on coil exchangers include air conditioning and central heating systems, compressors, heat pumps, boiler air preheating, pulp dryers, oil coolers, sump coolers and any other application involving vapor or gas condensation. To meet the requirements of these varying applications, coil heat exchangers may be built based on a number of types and styles. These include, but are not limited to: bare tube immersion coolers, copper coil heat exchangers, coil tube-in-shell heat exchangers, combination chiller air/ambient air water coolers, double-pip heat exchangers, gas to water coolers, stainless tube bundles, stainless steel tube immersion coils and tedson coil heat exchangers. Immersion coolers provide excellent care to generators and motors that need oil cooling services, and the copper used to make copper coil heat exchangers can meet the high industry standards of applications in aerospace, AC and refrigeration, construction, freon recycling and medicine.

Usually, metallic material, rather than a plastic or rubber material, is used to fabricate coil heat exchangers. Metallic metals and alloys offer the distinct advantage of increased conductivity. Some metals from which these long, thin heat exchangers are often made include: aluminum, nickel, steel, copper, titanium and a large number of metallic alloys. Copper in particular is highly conductive, with high strength and easy fabricating and soldering procedures. To lengthen their working lifetime and their efficiency, manufacturers may apply coatings and stains to metallic heat coil heat exchanger surfaces. Aside from conductivity, coil heat exchanger metals are chosen based on how they may be manipulated in order to bring more to the table, in terms of the improved efficiency of the heating system they will serve. For instance, titanium can easily be manipulated into a corrugated, or jagged texture style. Based on this fact, titanium is used in the heater exchange systems of many vapor and water applications, because corrugated surfaces positively affect them. Conversely, a smooth, copper surface coil exchanger is attractive to heater exchange systems that work with automotive or mechanical applications, like those attended to by oil coolers.

There are quite a few options available to those in search of the heating and cooling services offered by coil heat exchangers, no matter their pressure, flow and temperature specifications. They are easily installed and uninstalled and require little maintenance all around. These highly efficient, hardworking and versatile heat exchangers add value to any application. To get started, those looking to invest in coil heat exchangers need only to communicate their specifications and requirements to a reputable heat exchanger manufacturer.