16 U-tube heat exchangers

U-tube fluid vaporizers operating at extremely cold temperatures

We are about to finalize a unique project in January 2022. NMH offered full project support by engineering, designing and manufacturing 16 U-tube heat exchangers according to the ASME health and safety standards.

The customer is involved in the production of heat exchangers and systems that operate at cryogenic, extremely cold, temperatures. Therefore the U-tubes had to be made from stainless steel.

The customer worked with us before and as they were more than satisfied with the previous orders they contacted us again and asked for more.

This time the customer requested 16 heat exchangers, U-tube fluid vaporizers in various sizes. The largest one is about 6 tons. For this project we had to purchase the longest U-tubes ever (!) used in NMH’s manufacturing history.

Impressing facts

• The remarkable thing about this project is that the installation has tubular and inter-tube spaces holding liquids such as liquid argon, liquid nitrogen, and liquid oxygen.
• The straight length of the bare tube was over 20 meters.
• The tube sheet is 100 mm thick and weighs approximately 1,000 kg.

Setting the standard

The installation of the heat exchangers will take place in Asia. Therefore the units need to meet certain health and safety standards; the system must comply with quality mark ‘ASME Section VIII, Division 1 2019 Edition’.

NMH acquired the ASME certificate after 6 months of hard work, preparing and gaining knowledge in 2019. There are only 5 companies certified in Slovakia, and now NMH is one of them!

We expect to have the entire system up and running at the end of January 2022.