Gasketed plate-and-frame heat exchangers

Alfa Laval doesn’t do average. Whether it is our multi-purpose Industrial range; the Semi-welded industrial range for refrigeration and exacting processes; the Hygienic range for food, beverage and pharma applications; or the Specialized range for condensation, evaporation and fibrous media – you buy into reduced cost of ownership and increased efficiency and safety.

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Gasketed plate heat exchangers for modern requirements

  • Highest thermal efficiency and close temperature approach
  • Compact units - space saving, easy to service and maintain
  • Maximum uptime - less fouling, stress, wear and corrosion
  • Flexible - easy to adapt to changed duty requirements

Our gasketed plate heat exchangers - also known as plate and frame heat exchangers - optimise heat transfer between large surfaces of corrugated plates drawing heat from one gas or liquid to the other. The high efficiency and outstanding reliability in a compact design, offers an investment with the most attractive CTO over the product life time. Not to forget the energy saving capabilities and low environmental footprint.

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Product manuals

Download the manuals for a wide range of Alfa Laval gasketed plate and frame heat exchangers here, including our Industrial Line, Semi-Welded Line, AlfaQ and Hygienic range.

阿法拉伐AlfaQ板式换热器-AlfaQ plate heat exchanger

Industrial Line

Our wide range of industrial gasketed plate heat exchangers is suitable for all types of industry and multiple applications from heating, cooling and heat recovery to condensation and evaporation. The Industrial line’s versatility allows it to be designed and configured for applications ranging from relatively simple duties with low requirements to very demanding duties with the highest requirements on both performance and documentation.

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HVAC Applications

Alfa Laval AlfaQ™ heat exchangers are used for HVAC applications such as cooling plants, ice-storage systems, data centers, and free cooling systems. The range is certified according to the AHRI Liquid to Liquid Heat Exchangers (LLHE) Certification Program which ensures thermal performance according to manufacturers’ published specifications.

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Hygienic Line

High efficiency and versatile design make the new Alfa Laval Hygienic Line the preferred choice for a wide range of hygienic heat transfer applications. This includes the food, dairy, beverage, home and personal care, biotech and pharmaceutical industries, providing owners and operators with peace of mind.

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Local service and support for your plate heat exchanger

You can trust Alfa Laval technicians to repair and recondition your plate heat exchangers – no matter the brand. We’ve serviced equipment for over 90 years in Australia with two of our local service centres outfitted with the equipment and expertise to optimize the performance and life time of your plate heat exchangers.

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Live chat with our heat exchanger experts

Looking for the right heat exchanger can be a complex task. Live chat with our local engineers to get expert advice on the best technology for your applications, as well as sizing and pricing information. Simply click on the blue chat icon at the bottom right corner of the page to contact our agents. Available Monday to Friday. We look forward to hearing from you!

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How it works

What is a plate heat exchanger?

A gasketed plate heat exchanger consists of a series of corrugated plates, assembled between a frame and pressure plates to retain pressure. Gaskets act as seals between the plates. The channel plates and the pressure plate are suspended from an upper carrying bar and fixed in position by a lower guiding bar, both of which are fixed to the support column. Fluids normally run counter-currently through the heat exchanger. This gives the most efficient thermal performance and enables a very close temperature approach, ie the temperature difference between the exiting process medium and the entering service medium. In a gasketed plate heat exchanger, the design allows easy cleaning and simple capacity modification (by removing or adding plates).

 

How does a plate heat exchanger work?

How plate heat exchangers work

The concept behind a heat exchanger is relatively simple – heating or cooling one medium by transferring heat between it and another one.

In a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, heat is transferred from the hot media to the cold media as fluids pass through the heat exchanger. Counter current flow enables maximum heat recovery possibilities and very close temperature approach can be achieved. Temperature cross is also possible, meaning that the hot outlet can reach a lower temperature than the cold outlet. This can only be achieved to a limited extent with tubular heat exchangers making plate-and-frame heat exchangers more thermally efficient.

For heat sensitive or viscous media, co-current flow can be used to let the coldest fluid meet the hottest when entering the heat exchanger. This minimizes the risk of the media overheating or freezing.

Five reasons to use plate-and-frame heat exchangers instead of shell-and-tube

While some industry professionals are hesitant to stray from traditional shell-and-tube heat exchangers, here are five reasons why you should be using compact plate heat exchangers instead for greater efficiencies and cost savings.

Alfa Laval gasketed plate heat exchanger

Best plates for heat exchanger applications

Plates are available with various pressing depths, angles of chevron pattern and various corrugation shapes, all carefully designed and selected to achieve optimal performance. Depending on the application, each product range has its own specific plate features.

When two plates are superimposed with opposing herringbone patterns, this type of corrugation generates a helix-like flow with very high turbulence, thus producing the essential condition for achieving high transfer coefficients and effective heat exchanger self-cleaning. By changing the plate corrugation pattern, the heat exchanger can be used in different processes, even those with very dirty media, to avoid stagnant zones and fouling.

While high flow turbulence between plates results in higher heat transfer, the consequence is pressure drop. Our thermal design engineers can help you design and select the model and configuration that is suitable for your application so that it delivers maximum thermal performance with minimum pressure drop.

Double-wall gasketed plate heat exchangers

Designed for use with fluids that cannot be allowed to mix. Prevents leaking fluid coming into contact with the fluid in the other circuit.

Wide-gap plates

Ideal for fluids containing fibers or coarse particles. Designed to eliminate bridging of solids in the entrance area.

Learn more about WideGap plate heat exchangers

Semi-welded plates

Enable aggressive and difficult fluids to be handled, and also extend the pressure range.

Learn more about semi-welded plate heat exchangers

Diabon™ graphite non-metallic plates

A composite of fused graphite and fluoroplastic provides excellent resistance to corrosive materials.

Learn more about Diabon Graphite non-metallic plates

Live chat with our heat exchanger experts

Looking for the right heat exchanger can be a complex task. Live chat with our local engineers to get expert advice on the best technology for your applications, as well as sizing and pricing information. Simply click on the blue chat icon at the bottom right corner of the page to contact our agents. Available Monday to Friday. We look forward to hearing from you!

man computer service and training 640x360