TUBE BUNDLE HEAT EXCHANGER

We manufacture Tube Bundles suiting various equipment like Intercoolers, Aftercoolers. The tube bundles can be either of plaint tube type or finned type depending on the applications. The applications include steam heating, refrigerated air drying etc.

Tube sheets are plates or forgings drilled to provide holes through which tubes are inserted.  Tubes are appropriately secured to the tubesheet so that the fluid on the shell side is prevented from mixing with the fluid on the tube side.  Holes are drilled in the tubesheet normally in either of two patterns, triangular or square.  

      

The distance between the centers of the tube hole is called the tube pitch; normally the tube pitch is 1.25 times the outside diameter of the tubes.  Other tube pitches are frequently used to reduce the shell side pressure drop and to control the velocity of the shell side fluid as it flows across the tube bundle.  Triangular pitch is most often applied because of higher heat transfer and compactness it provides.  Square pitch facilitates mechanical cleaning of the outside of the tubes.  

    

Two tubesheets are required except for U-tube bundles.  The tubes are inserted through the holes in the tubesheets and are held firmly in place either by welding or by mechanical or hydraulic expansion.  A rolled joint is the common term for a tube-to-tube sheet joint resulting from a mechanical expansion of the tube against the tubesheet.  This joint is most often achieved using roller expanders; hence the term rolled joint.  Less frequently, tubes are expanded by hydraulic processes to affect a mechanical bond.  Tubes can also be welded to the front or inboard face of the tubesheet.  Strength welding designates that the mechanical strength of the joint is provided primarily by the welding procedure and the tubes are only lightly expanded against the tubesheet to eliminate the crevice that would otherwise exist.

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