Happy Holidays from Tempco, for a Merry and Joyful Christmas and may everyone have a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2025!
Tempco will respect the following Christmas closure: from the 23rd of December to the 06th of January.
From the entire Tempco team, our warmest wishes for these holidays! See you in 2025!
Let’s start a series of videos focused on the characteristics and peculiarities of thermoregulation units. First of all, what is a thermoregulation unit.
These are thermal machines, someone calls them boilers, others call them TCU, thermal control units. In fact these are equipments that include a circulating pump, a heating system and a cooling circuit system and an electrical panel with a PID controller that maintains a fluid at a certain controlled temperature. This fluid is then aimed at regulating the temperature of a downstream industrial process. Overall, TCU are utilities serving industrial production processes.
There are several kinds of thermoregulating units, as seen in other videos: in Tempco we engineer thermoregulating units with electric heating, with steam heating as well as using different kinds of cooling systems.
But here let’s focus more on the topic of the fluids employed as carrier fluids, in other words, on the topic of the monofluid. Based on the project temperature level at which they are design to operate with, these units can employ a wide range of different kind of fluids: water for example at ambient temperature, and therefore with not pressurized circulating systems; pressurized water, when temperatures involved are up to 130-140° C; water with anti freeze additives, such as glycol, mono ethylene or propylene glycol, in case the temperature range starts with temperatures under 0° C; silicone oils or special oils, when the temperature range start under 0° C but we have to reach very high temperatures, and we also have to guarantee and maintain a smooth flow, with a low viscosity; and eventually, when working temperatures rise up, we can switch to diathermic oils.
Using diathermic oil, there are two kind of units: a first one that enables to reach temperatures up to 180° C, typically realized using sophisticated components of a certain kind, such as pumps with mechanical seals; or otherwise diathermic oil for temperatures up to 300-320° C. In this case, components are even more sophisticated, using for example magnetic drive pumps.
What determines the selection of a carrier fluid instead of another? As already said, it depends on the design range of temperature. Which means, with low temperature, glycol and anti freeze, water in case of ambient temperatures, up to 130° C; extreme temperatures, which means from -20 or -30° C up to high temperatures, silicone fluids or special fluids, typically oils; and finally, for very high temperatures, up to 180-300° C, diathermic oils.
In the steel mill sector, industrial plants producing semi-finished steel products such as billets and slabs require the presence of a cutting system to fit the products within the standard shipping dimensions for the loads of ferrous materials.
Cooling systems on burners are crucial in slab and billet oxy-fuel cutting plants for a series of reasons:
Cooling of burners in oxi-fuel system employs water for obvious, with dissipation that can often be carried out using free-coolers, as the temperature levels are not particularly high.
The technology of Tempco’s PCHE printed circuit exchangers is described in the new Hydrogen Guide 2024 of Hydrogen Fair, part of the EIOM circuit with mcTER and La Termotecnica, which offers many interesting insights into the evolution of the hydrogen sector in Italy.
PCHE exchangers offer an ideal application for cooling gas at very high pressure and temperature in the compression cycles of hydrogen refueling stations. Thanks to the diffusion bonding construction technique and the microchannel structure of the plates, obtained with a special chemical photo-etching process, these exchangers guarantee very high heat transfer efficiency, resistance to extreme working conditions with high pressure and temperatures and the necessary operational safety in hydrogen refueling stations.
A key technology for creating an adequate refueling infrastructure capable of supporting the growth of the hydrogen industry and the diffusion of fuel cell vehicles for the sustainable mobility of tomorrow.
On the Tempco page on the Fiera Idrogeno website you will find a collection of articles and applications developed for the hydrogen industry.
Here is the complete article on Tempco PCHE exchangers in hydrogen refueling stations featured in the new Hydrogen Guide 2024. Enjoy the reading!
One of the most interesting applications for printed circuit exchangers, or PCHE heat exchangers, is represented by hydrogen refueling stations. As already explained in other articles, this is an essential part for the commercial-scale development of sustainable mobility powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
Thanks to their ability to withstand extreme working pressures and temperatures, due to the special diffusion bonding construction process employed, in hydrogen refueling stations PCHE heat exchangers are essential for several reasons:
We have often talked about pharma production processes and about thermoregulating systems for the production processes of pharma products and APIs.
Clearly, before starting with industrial production, there are also pharma laboratories where new products and drugs are tested, let’s say produced in an early stage those same substances that later on will be produced in batch for an industrial consumption. Also pharma laboratories therefore require temperature control tasks.
At this purpose, there are very compact and small machinery which are employed in pharma laboratories, and they have to offer an extremely wide working range. That’s because a laboratory is where testing tasks are deployed, and very often the final temperature range is not yet defined, but it’s necessary to make several trials, in order to verify if at a certain temperature the expected reaction is going to take place, and then is necessary to find out at which temperature the product must be cooled in order to maintain the characteristics achieved at the high temperature level.
At this purpose, there are special and very flexible temperature regulation units that can be highly adapted to the varying needs of pharma labs.
Usually the heating cycle in these systems is carried out via an electrical system, since the powers required are very low. Same thing for the cooling section, which uses small refrigeration units with low power capacity but which allow to reach very low temperatures. Therefore, there are these systems that offer a wide range of working temperatures, offering for example the possibility of reaching -30° C and then up to +250° C, therefore a very extended temperature range to guarantee the possibility of carrying out all production tests, establishing the process parameters which will then be translated into industrial production.
An interesting type of exchangers are spiral heat exchangers, particularly appreciated in many industrial applications thanks to their unique characteristics. These exchangers are often used in applications with sludge or very dirty fluids.
Below is a summary of the main advantages and disadvantages of spiral heat exchangers.
Advantages of spiral exchangers:
1. Compactness: spiral exchangers are designed to be very compact, which allows to save space compared to other types of exchangers.
2. Self-cleaning: the continuous flow configuration and spiral geometry creates turbulence which can help reduce the build-up of dirt and scale. This makes spiral exchangers more suitable for fluids with suspended or viscous solids.
3. Heat transfer efficiency: the spiral geometry guarantees a high thermal exchange surface area compared to the overall volume, improving thermal efficiency.
4. Resistance to clogging: thanks to their configuration, spiral heat exchangers are more resistant to clogging than shell and tube exchangers or plate exchangers, especially in applications with particularly dirty fluids.
5. Ease of maintenance: maintenance is generally simpler as opening the lid of a spiral exchanger allows easy access to the internal surface, making cleaning easier.
6. Versatility: Spiral exchangers can handle a wide range of fluids, including corrosive and dirty ones, and be used in applications requiring high pressures or temperatures.
Disadvantages of spiral exchangers:
1. Initial cost: spiral exchangers may have a higher initial cost than other types of exchangers, such as plate or shell-and-tube exchangers, especially for small-scale installations.
2. Manual cleaning: while they offer good resistance to clogging, when heavier fouling occurs, cleaning requires to open the unit, which can take time and resources.
3. Pressure limits: although they resist high pressures well, spiral exchangers still have a limit, especially when compared to shell and tube exchangers, which can handle much higher pressures in some critical applications.
4. Not suitable for all fluids: in applications with extremely viscous fluids or large solid particles, there may be increased resistance to flow, reducing heat transfer efficiency.
5. Less flexible design: once built, a spiral exchanger is less flexible than modular plate exchangers, which instead allow you to add or remove plates to increase the exchange capacity.
In conclusion, spiral heat exchangers are an excellent solution in applications where compactness, efficiency and resistance to clogging are critical, but they can be more expensive and less flexible than other solutions.
Halloween is literally knocking at the door… what better occasion to talk about candies? But first, we can’t help but going with the traditional question… Trick or Treat? Which in the temperature control sector of Tempco can be figured out like this:
The goal is therefore always to eliminate any ’trick’ and guarantee a sweet, smooth and constant thermal management.
But let’s get to candies! Speaking of candies and sweets, we have often talked in the past about chocolate production, where our thermoregulation and cooling equipment is often used. A very same thing happens in the production of candies. In fact, when producing candies, or even gummy sweets, the production process involves as well cooling tasks or requires to be thermoregulated.
How are candies made? Essentially, there is a sugar die that gets formed, the candy is made using a mold and the candy enters a thermal treatment system where it usually gets cooled. Cooling is necessary to get rid of moisture within the sugar in order to obtain a very glossy look of the candy achieving an attractive aesthetic appearance.
Following the cooling step, there is a post-heating process aimed at ensuring a controlled temperature before packaging. It’s interesting how every food production needs anyway a control of temperature, regardless of whether it is pasteurization or cooling, or heating. In this case this is not related to a particular process aimed at maintaining organoleptic characteristics but it’s related to a purely aesthetic factor and to get rid of the excess of humidity which would probably also change the taste of the candy.
In addition, in this kind of productions there are also processes involved for the washing of production lines that then require a post-heating in order to dry the overall plant and get it ready for a brand new production.
Tire and rubber hose production plants require a precise temperature control for a variety of reasons.
First and foremost, temperature control is critical in order to ensure material uniformity. When mixing rubber with other ingredients (such as additives and reinforcements), maintaining a constant temperature is essential to ensure that the composition is uniform. Excessive or too low temperatures can lead to an incorrect mixing, compromising the mechanical properties of the final product.
Another process involved in the production of rubber hoses and tires is vulcanization: this is a chemical process that gives rubber its elasticity and final resistance. In vulcanization, the temperature must be strictly controlled to ensure that the process occurs correctly. Inadequate control can lead to rubber that is too stiff or, on the contrary, too soft, negatively affecting the quality of the product.
A proper and accurate temperature control therefore helps to ensure production efficiency. Well-managed temperatures reduce production cycle times and increase overall energy efficiency. Maintaining ideal temperatures also reduces the probability of scrap and rework, optimizing the production process by reducing waste of material, increasing the sustainability of the process.
Finally, a correct temperature control is crucial for the surface quality of the products. In particular, for tires, the temperature directly affects the surface quality and adhesion of the layers. Accurate temperature control avoids defects such as bubbles, roughness or distortion.
To foster the innovative technology of PCHE exchangers applied in hydrogen refueling stations, Tempco is participating with our partner for PCHE printed circuit exchangers, Microchannel Devices, at the Hydrogen Technology Expo (booth A3 G50), in Hamburg on 23-24 October, to present all the benefits offered by PCHE single and multi-stream heat exchangers in hydrogen filling stations.
PCHE heat exchangers have a key role in hydrogen refueling stations, an essential asset to realize an adequate distribution network serving the diffusion of fuel cell vehicles for the sustainable electric mobility of the future. This special type of heat exchangers can work at high pressures, up to 700 bar, required for an efficient and rapid supply of hydrogen to fuel cell powered vehicles, thanks to the special diffusion bonding technique employed for their construction.
The PCHE exchangers therefore ensure the proper heat management during the hydrogen compression cycle, guaranteeing high energy efficiency thanks to the microchannel structure of the plates while offering a very compact size, saving precious installation space in refueling stations. The extremely robust construction therefore ensures the necessary reliability to withstand the extreme operating conditions in hydrogen refueling stations.
We look forward to seeing you at the Hydrogen Technology Expo at Hamburg Messe, Germany, on 23 and 24 October at Microchannel Devices at booth A3 G50.
Registration and free entry ticket to the fair at the page https://www.hydrogen-worldexpo.com/.
