6 Problems You Can Tackle With Custom Heat Exchanger Plates

If your plate heat exchanger isn’t running at its highest potential, the problem could be your plates — not your entire unit.

Investing in plates designed for your specific production line might be the answer if you want to increase efficiencies across your facility and tackle repeating challenges. 

Standard vs. Custom Heat Exchanger Plates

Most standard plate heat exchanger designs are designed to perform a general, effective heat transfer on various products. While these plates “get the job done,” they aren't always customized for sanitary food and beverage applications.

Custom plate configurations are built to fit into your existing heat exchanger to support increased efficiency. These custom plates may have a larger surface area, larger gaskets, or even a different material to match your production line’s unique operations.

Custom plates might feature:

• Optimized chevron angles to enhance turbulence and heat transfer
• Increased or decreased pressing depths to adjust flow velocity
• Specialized distribution areas to ensure even product flow

For example, AGC’s ProFlow Series customized plate packs have a large surface area and match the 3-A sanitation standard. Sanitary design is crucial in the food and beverage industry, making these the perfect heat exchanger plates for those applications.

So, what challenges can custom heat exchanger plates help you tackle? 

1. Maximizing Flow Rates and Minimizing Pressure Drops

To run at peak efficiency, your gasket size and material should be engineered for the product running through your plate heat exchanger. These specifications take into account the viscosity, material, and starting heat of your product.

At AGC, we engineer your gaskets to create that optimized flow. Between optimized flow rates and a larger surface area, you can process the most product per shift and kick your production output into high gear.

Our AGC PRO10^TM plate design features an enlarged opening for lower pressure drop in the port inlet.

2. Premature Fouling and Channeling

It's common for plants to struggle with reduced efficiency due to fouling and channeling. This is one of the many reasons we engineered custom plates with fouling prevention and easy cleaning in mind.

AGC plates are designed with specific flow patterns that minimize areas where fouling is likely to occur. By reducing dead zones and ensuring consistent flow across the entire plate surface, we can significantly decrease the risk of premature fouling.

Higher CIP Flow Rates and Better Cleaning Response

Our plates feature a bright annealed finish, allowing for better CIP response. Certain plate models, including our PRO3^TM plates, feature a special cleaning channel for improved CIP response, ensuring that cleaning solutions effectively reach all areas of the plate. 

3. Rising Plant Energy Costs 

When you install additional plates to increase your production, you may be concerned that your energy bills will rise. Fortunately, that isn't necessarily true.

AGC’s custom plate and frame heat exchanger designs are engineered with operational efficiency in mind. Because of the greater plate surface area and maximized contact times during flow, you’ll speed up your production line without any wasted energy due to inefficient designs.

More good news: with certain plate heat exchangers, you can capture free BTUs using a regeneration section, further improving your energy costs.

4. Cross-Contamination

Plate durability and gasket quality both contribute to your product's safety. Our gaskets are made from heat and pressure-resistant materials, sealing plates and preventing cross-contamination. The metal-to-metal contact points prevent the plates from premature wear and reduce the risk of leaks. Our honeycomb pattern helps your team avoid installing plates incorrectly; any inconsistencies in the pattern will show issues with the streaming before they affect your product.

Our AGC PRO10^TM gasket design features snap-in gaskets for secure attachment and easy regasketing.

Our AGC PRO10^TM metal-to-metal alignment device and reinforced side band enhance the plate's durability.

Standard plates may not always be suitable for corrosive or reactive processes. AGC's plates can be manufactured from specialized materials, including high nickel alloy, to ensure longevity for equipment running abrasive products.

Our plates are built to last with durable materials and designs that withstand the test of time. For example, our PRO10^TM plates feature a 0.7mm thickness to reduce bending; our Pro5Snap^TM plates boast a 0.9mm thickness for highly viscous products or products with particulates to reduce restriction at the inlet.

And we didn't just stop at our plates — our plate heat exchangers are designed so that common wear components, like ports, can be easily removed and replaced so you don't need to buy an entire new frame.

6. Inability To Scale

As your production needs grow, your existing heat exchanger may struggle to keep up. Custom plates can help increase capacity without requiring a complete system overhaul by offering:

• Larger surface area designs to increase heat transfer within the same frame.
• More efficient plate patterns to improve heat transfer rates.
• Optimized plate gaps to increase flow rates while maintaining heat transfer efficiency.

Scale Easily and Quickly

If you’re looking to get more out of your heat exchanger, it can be costly to rearrange your entire production line — not to mention the downtime you’ll experience during the upgrade. But with custom plate packs, you won’t need to worry about extensive interruptions.

Since custom plates fit directly into your current heat exchanger, and they are quick to install, you can get back up and running with your newly improved equipment in no time.

Custom Plate Packs That Get the Job Done

The cost of downtime and troubleshooting can quickly add up to (and exceed) the cost of investing in plates that can handle the job.

If you’re looking for custom solutions for your plate heat exchanger, let the pros at AGC help you out. No matter how you lay out your operations, we can create custom plate packs that fit your business plan and maximize output.

The sooner you install your custom heat exchanger plates; the sooner you can give your plant a competitive edge.