Have you ever looked inside your plate heat exchanger? If the answer is no or "we don't remember," read on regarding best practices for your equipment.
If you want assistance contact Thermaline and we will help build a maintenance plan tailored to your company.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
A heat exchanger unit has only two working parts- hygienic stainless steel plate surfaces, which are bounded by food-grade gaskets. Your product travels through the unit, indirectly exchanging energy with the media of disparate temperature. So, these two different pathways which never cross have specific cleaning concerns.
Most heat exchangers are difficult to access in the plant, due to time constraints or the presence of facility equipment and piping. For this reason it's typical that the unit is rated for CIP or Clean In Place procedures. The high pressures and turbulence of flow in conjunction with caustics is usually enough to remove sediment and prevent fouling within the heat exchanger's pathways.
As long as you perform CIP regularly, your pathways stay clean and operational. If not, you may one day open your heat exchanger to find a scenario like you see in these pictures.
So, how do we avoid costly downtimes and hidden part costs when servicing the heat exchanger?
- Once a year, plan a date to break the heat exchanger down for visual inspection.
Try to pick a day when the plant is not busy, i.e. near holidays or inspection dates.
- Prepare by having 10% of your total plate count in spare gaskets on hand on maintenance day.
Thermaline offers spare parts through our website here or by phone. Give us a call in advance!
- Sanitize plates, or use Thermaline's Plate Exchange Program
At smaller scales, cleaning your plates in-house can have savings which are worth a new heat exchanger. When you are ready to have plates delivered before/on the day of maintenance, check out our plate exchange program!
- Follow videos for breakdown and reassembly!
Have your sanitation manager watch our informative series regarding breakdown, cleaning, inspection, and reassembly. We are here to support with original drawings, user manuals, and phone or email communication.
Contact Thermaline online or call us at 1(800)767-6720 for help with your service and maintenance plan.
