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A range of industries uses steam air heaters to rapidly and efficiently heating and cooling media in a process. We design and manufacture steam air heaters for the harshest environments, and to your requirements.
They help to improve the performance of your plant through a rapid start-up. Also, they reduce costs by optimising the use of steam.
Steam is used as a fast and efficient way to heat media, especially air and liquids. The temperatures and stresses involved in industrial processes can be extreme, but at the same time need to be managed carefully. Reliability and durability are essential, especially where foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals or expensive industrial products and processes are involved.
Steam heaters typically consist of a row of tubes in a casing or duct. Steam is passed through the tubes. Any air or gas moved over the tubes is heated. The condensing steam transfers heat more effectively than gases, so fins are fitted to the tubes to correct the imbalance and improve the heat transfer to the air or gas.
Large steam air heaters are usually made of two or more sections. These may include ‘steam’, ‘condensate’ and the optional ‘flash’ sections. As the steam heats the air, it cools down, condenses and turns to water. The heater configuration is in counterflow so that cold air entering is warmed by the condensate section, then brought up to temperature in the steam section.
Sterling Thermal Technology designs, manufactures and installs a wide range of steam air heaters.
Configurations, duct sizes and even the materials used in our manufacture are customised to align process, plant layout and steam pressures constraints. We manufacture the units from various grades of stainless steel or aluminium. But, we also use alternative materials on request to meet your specific process requirements.
Furthermore, our products benefit from our highly efficient Elfin fin plate technology, which can be used in extreme environments; up to 400oC. The technology helps to ensure the cleanliness of the heated gases, to alleviate thermal stresses in the heat exchanger and to moderate the impact of corrosive environments. The Elfin design reduces the need for exotic materials because special coatings are already incorporated within our product portfolio.
Our expertise in fin design, as well as our understanding of extended fin surfaces and their applications, allow us to deliver customised solutions for specific applications and environments.
Last but not least, the modular design of our units can deliver significant benefits to you. The heater sections are bolted together directly. Instead of being installed in a cassette within a housing, we assemble them as complete units with interconnecting manifolds. This straightforward design allows to remove the individual modules, inspect, maintain and replace them as and when required. It also makes it relatively easy to thermally lag our steam air heaters.
Download this page about steam air heaters as a PDF file
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If you feel you need another type of heat exchanger, visit our products and services page or contact us.
Using Sterling products has led to significant energy savings, both with the new heater which replaced the older identical unit and with the additional recovery condensate section fed from the Lactose Plant. The average steam consumption reduced from 4.5 tph in 2016 to 4.0 tph in Feb 2017, which is far better than forecast during the CapEx funding stage.
We customise our heat exchange solution to meet your requirements, so contact us today to discover the right equipment for you.
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