THERMAL DESIGN

All Metalforms thermal evaluations are performed by our in-house designers. The designers have invested time and interest in providing the optimum design to uphold our industry-wide standards and thermal design reputation.

Metalforms, utilizes the latest version of Heat Transfer Research Institute’s Xist Exchanger Suite (HTRI) to perform thermal and vibration analysis. Optimum sizing is determined based on customer specified tube side and shell side process conditions and stream compositions. While designing an exchanger, the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturing Association and American Petroleum Institute 660 standards are strictly applied while complying with customer design standards. Heat exchangers that are designed by Metalforms, are guaranteed to be as thermally efficient as possible and will have minimal vibrations based on customer specified operating conditions.

From a thermal design standpoint, we can offer many services to our customers:

• Troubleshooting existing problems in heat exchanger designs include:
  • Pressure drop problems
  • Vibrational issues
  • Erosion issues
  • Corrosion issues
  • Flow rate bottlenecks
  • Temperature cross/pinch point limitations
• Custom design fit to meet potential space and piping limitations

It is not uncommon for a unit which has a history of problems to be fixed by performing a thermal evaluation with some minor modifications to the existing design.

Our designers can answer any general or specific questions about exchanger designs based on our combined design experience.