Paul Mueller Company Academy

Plate heat exchangers are a highly useful industrial component for passively (without extra energy) controlling fluid temperatures using other fluids that may already be part of the industrial process. Here’s a brief explanation of how they work and their benefits, as well as links to more helpful resources.

Heat exchangers all work by passing a hot fluid and a cold fluid across opposite sides of a piece of metal. The heat from one fluid passes across the metal (which is thermally conductive) into the other fluid without the fluids making contact. High fluid velocity, high turbulence, high surface area and a large temperature differential all contribute to more efficient heat transfer. However, different designs are more efficient than others depending on the application.