About MechPro, Inc.
Our specialized knowledge and equipment at MechPro can tackle the difficult task of disassembly and reassembly of any plate exchanger in just minutes compared to hours by conventional means. Add this to our shop service plus our buying power for parts and you now have a complete heat exchanger rebuild center. We are able to combine any of our services to accommodate your special needs in virtually any environment.
A long term goal should be to institute preventive and predictive maintenance strategies for heat exchangers. Maintenance procedures can be scheduled before unplanned downtime occurs. Emergencies do happen, we will work with you to get a unit operational as quickly as possible.
A plate heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that uses metal plates to transfer heat between two fluids. This has a major advantage over a conventional heat exchanger in that the fluids are exposed to a much larger surface area because the fluids spread out over the plates. This facilitates the transfer of heat, and greatly increases the speed of the temperature change. Plate heat exchangers are now common and very small brazed versions are used in the hot-water sections of millions of combination boilers. The high heat transfer efficiency for such a small physical size has increased the domestic hot water (DHW) flowrate of combination boilers. The small plate heat exchanger has made a great impact in domestic heating and hot-water. Larger commercial versions use gaskets between the plates, smaller version tend to be brazed.
The concept behind a heat exchanger is the use of pipes or other containment vessels to heat or cool one fluid by transferring heat between it and another fluid. In most cases, the exchanger consists of a coiled pipe containing one fluid that passes through a chamber containing another fluid. The walls of the pipe are usually made of metal, or another substance with a high thermal conductivity, to facilitate the interchange, whereas the outer casing of the larger chamber is made of a plastic or coated with thermal insulation, to discourage heat from escaping from the exchanger.
The plate heat exchanger (PHE) was invented by Dr Richard Seligman in 1923 and revolutionized methods of indirect heating and cooling of fluids. Dr Richard Seligman founded APV in 1910 as the Aluminum Plant & Vessel Company Limited, a specialist fabricating firm supplying welded vessels to the brewery and vegetable oil trades.
Heat exchanger maintenance is critical for controllability and energy efficiency. Typical problems include interior comfort complaints, off-grade product, escalating utility bills and related troubles.