5 Tips how to choose your most suitable fin tube heat exchanger?

What is fin tube heat exchanger

Fin tube heat exchanger  is a kind of heat exchange equipment used in gas and liquid heat exchangers. It achieves the purpose of enhancing heat transfer by adding fins to the ordinary base tube.

The  fin tube heat exchanger is one of the earliest and most successful discoveries in the process of improving tube heat transfer. This method is still the most widely used method among all tube heat transfer surface enhancement methods.

 It is not only suitable for single-fin tube heat exchangers, which are widely used in power, chemical, petrochemical, air-conditioning engineering and refrigeration engineering.

Structure of  fin tube heat exchanger

The basic heat transfer element of the fin tube heat exchanger is a finned tube, a finned tube mountain base tube and a fin combination. The base tube is usually a round tube, but there are also oval tubes and flat tubes. The surface structure of the fins includes flat fins, interrupted fins, corrugated fins and perforated fins.

The base pipe can be steel pipe; stainless steel pipe; copper pipe, etc. The fin can also be made of steel belt; stainless steel belt, copper belt, aluminum belt, etc. The fin tube heat exchanger is a device in which air is used as the heat exchange medium, and the temperature is transferred from one object to another.

There are two types of steam heat exchangers, heating air and cooling air. The heat exchange process is divided into two stages. First, the heating or cooling medium heats or cools the surrounding air under the action of the finned tube, and the heated or cooled air transfers the heat to other objects to achieve the purpose of heating and cooling.

Such as drying room drying and air cooling system. It is the main equipment in the hot air device. The heat medium used in the fin tube heat exchanger can be steam or hot water, or heat transfer oil. The working pressure of steam is generally not more than 0.8Mpa, and the temperature of hot air is below 150°C.

Classification of finned tubes in fin tube heat exchanger:

1. Classified by structure

From the structural type, the finned tube can be divided into two basic types: longitudinal and radial. Other types are the development and deformation of these two types. For example, the large spiral angle fin tube is close to the longitudinal direction, and the small spiral angle fin tube is close to the radial The shapes of the fins are round, rectangular and needle-shaped. In addition, the fin can be arranged outside the tube, called an outer finned tube; it can also be arranged inside the tube, called an inner fin tube or both.

2. Classified by manufacturing process

According to the manufacturing process, finned tubes can be classified into integral finned tubes, welded finned tubes, high-frequency welded finned tubes and mechanically connected finned tubes.

(1) The integral fin tube is made by casting, machining or rolling, and the fin and the tube are a whole.

(2) Welding finned tubes, using brazing or inert gas shielded welding and other processes to manufacture. Modern welding technology can connect fins of different materials together, and can make finned tubes simple and economical, with good heat transfer and mechanical properties, and has been widely used. Since the residue in the welding seam is not conducive to heat transfer and may even cause fracture, the quality of the welding process must be ensured when producing such finned tubes.

(3) High-frequency welding of finned tubes uses high-frequency electric induction generated by a high-frequency generator to generate high temperature at the contact point between the tube surface and the fins.

Melt the two in the left and right depth range, and then pressurize to connect the fin and the tube as a whole. No flux, no solder, simple manufacturing, high productivity, excellent heat transfer and mechanical properties. This is the most ideal type of finned tube, which is being recognized and adopted by the majority of users.

(4) The finned tubes are mechanically connected, usually in three types: winding type, inlaid type, sleeve type or string type. The winding fin tube is simple to manufacture. The metal band is fixed on one end of the tube by mechanical or welding method, and the metal belt is tightly wound on the outer wall of the tube by the tube rotation torque, and the other end is fixed to form a wound fin tube. The material of the winding sheet can be copper strip, steel strip or aluminum strip.

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