Exploring the Innovative Plate Ice Bath Chiller : A Complete Guide

The plate heat plate ice bath chiller is mainly composed of a heat transfer plate, a sealing gasket, a pressure plate at both ends, a clamping bolt and a support ‌. The heat transfer plate is the main component of heat transfer, usually made of stainless steel or titanium, and has the characteristics of efficient heat transfer. Sealing gaskets are used to seal between plates. Commonly used materials include nitrile, butadiene, rubber, EPDM rubber and fluorine rubber. The pressure plates at both ends are used to clamp all heat transfer plates to prevent leakage of fluid media, while the clamping bolts tighten the pressure plates at both ends to ensure that the heat transfer plates are evenly stressed.

The plate heat exchanger in the chiller is primarily used for liquid-liquid or liquid-steam heat exchange, making it ideal for various cooling and freezing systems. Due to its high-efficiency heat transfer, compact structure, small footprint, and other features, plate heat exchangers are widely used in chillers. When putting a plate chiller in an ice bath, it can effectively exchange heat to meet the cooling demands of refrigeration systems, ensuring optimal performance for both commercial and residential ice bath applications.

Therefore, an exchange structure ice bath chiller is the ideal choice for a cold plunge and a symbol of high-end quality and performance.

Working Principle of Plate Heat – Plate Ice Bath Chiller

‌The working principle of the plate exchange chiller is achieved through the circulation of refrigerant. The specific process is as follows:

‌Refrigerant Cycle

When the compressor is started, the refrigerant is compressed into high temperature and high pressure gas. Subsequently, the high temperature and high pressure refrigerant gas is cooled through the condenser and becomes a medium temperature and high pressure liquid. After the pressure reduction of these liquids through the expansion valve, the temperature is reduced, and finally the heat is absorbed through the evaporator, cooling the refrigerant into a low temperature and low pressure gas. After this process is completed, the low-temperature and low-pressure gas is compressed again by the compressor to form a refrigeration cycle.

‌Heat Exchange

During the refrigeration cycle, the plate exchange chiller carries out heat exchange through a plate heat exchanger. Plate heat exchangers are stacked with a series of metal sheets with a certain corrugated shape to form a thin rectangular channel. The cold/hot heat exchange medium flows through their respective channels and exchanges heat with the separated plates to reach the temperature required by the user .

Advantages of Using Plate Heat

Plate heat exchangers are stacked with metal plates with a certain corrugated shape, and the plates are sealed and guided by sealing gaskets between the plates, separating the cold/hot two fluid channels, and the cold/hot heat exchange medium flows through their respective channels, and the separated plates exchange heat to achieve the temperature required by the user.

Its Features Include:

• Smaller size, less area‌ : plate heat exchanger structure is compact, covers an area of only one third of the tube heat exchanger.
• Higher heat transfer efficiency ‌ : under the same pressure loss, its heat transfer coefficient is 3-5 times higher than that of tube heat exchanger.
• Flexible assembly: can be according to the need to increase or decrease the process, strong adaptability.
• Lower metal consumption: Compact structure, less material use.
• Easy disassembly, cleaning, maintenance: plate heat exchanger is easy to disassemble and clean, easy to maintain.

Comparison of Plate Type and Shell and Tube Type in Ice Bath Chiller

‌There are significant differences between the plate and shell and tube coolers of ice bath chiller in terms of structure, performance, application scope and maintenance.

Structure Difference

‌

Plate Cooler:

composed of a plurality of parallel arranged metal plates, the formation of a narrow channel between these plates, the medium flows in the channel, through the plate heat conduction to achieve heat dissipation. The plates are closely arranged to form a complex flow channel, so that the fluid rotates three-dimensional flow in the flow channel between the corrugated plates,

‌

Shell-And-Coil Condenser:

Composed of a shell and a tube bundle, the medium flows through the tube bundle, the gap between the tube bundle and the shell forms a medium flow channel, and the shell plays a protective role. The space between the bundles is large, and the medium flow rate is slow,

Performance Difference

Heat transfer efficiency:

plate cooler has high heat transfer efficiency, because the channel between the plates is narrow, the medium flow rate is fast, and the heat transfer is fast.

Pressure loss:

the pressure loss per unit length of the plate cooler is large, because the gap between the heat transfer surface is small, the heat transfer surface has convex.

Daily Maintenance of Plate Ice Bath Chiller

• Regular cleaning ‌: Plate heat exchangers usually transfer heat through the gap between plates, which is easy to accumulate dirt and sediment, affecting the heat transfer efficiency. Regular cleaning of the inside of the plate heat exchanger can restore its heat exchange performance as much as possible. The cleaning method can choose high pressure water gun cleaning or chemical cleaning. After chemical cleaning, be sure to rinse with water to prevent residual chemical substances from eroding the plate.
• Check the seals: Seals of plate heat exchangers are easy to age and wear, resulting in leakage and leakage. Check and replace seals regularly to ensure the normal operation of the heat exchanger.
• Cleaning water quality: plate heat exchangers usually use water as a medium for heat exchange, and the cleanliness of water quality has a great impact on the normal operation of the heat exchanger. Regularly checking the water quality and removing impurities and sediments from the water can reduce the blockage and corrosion problems of the heat exchanger.
• Safe operation: In the process of maintenance and maintenance, it is necessary to observe the safe operation procedures, the correct use of tools and equipment, to ensure the safety of personnel and equipment.

Through the above maintenance measures, the service life of the plate heat exchanger of the ice bath chiller can be effectively extended, and its working efficiency and stability can be improved.‌‌ ‌‌

Common Problems and Troubleshooting of Board Types

Common faults of plate replacement chiller include leakage of plate heat exchanger, abnormal circulation pump, failure of feed pump to automatically refill water and failure of control system ‌. The causes and solutions of these failures are as follows:

‌Pate heat exchanger leakage

the main reason is that the sealing gasket is worn or damaged, resulting in fluid leakage. The solution is to check the sealing gasket regularly, replace the damaged gasket in time, and control the operating pressure and temperature to avoid excessive fluctuations ‌.

‌‌Circulating pump anomaly

the performance is large vibration, loud noise, abnormal heat and other phenomena. The reason is that the internal parts of the pump wear, bearing damage, pipeline blockage or cavitation. The solution is to maintain the circulating pump regularly, check the bearing, mechanical seal and other wearing parts, to avoid cavitation ‌.

‌‌‌The replenishment pump cannot automatically replenish water

the reason is that the motor of the replenishment pump is faulty, the control line is faulty, or the sensor is faulty. The solution is to check the motor and control line of the supplementary pump to ensure normal operation, and check whether the sensor is normal, and timely repair or replace the damaged parts ‌.

‌‌‌Control system failure

the cause is control element failure, poor line contact or external interference. The solution is to check whether the control components and lines are normal, repair or replace the damaged parts in time, and strengthen the external anti-interference measures to improve the stability of the control system.‌

Coldchiller Manufacturer – Plate Ice Bath Chiller

Our plate exchange chiller offers a fully customizable solution, allowing our ice bath chillers to be tailored to meet diverse customer needs. These customizations can include features such as a plate structure, WiFi connectivity, automatic water filling, and more.

Our plate structure ice bath chiller provides the following advantages:

• Efficient and stable‌ : the efficient heat exchange technology of plate heat exchanger makes the refrigeration machine more efficient and stable.
• ‌Easy operation and maintenance: plate heat exchanger adopts modular design, convenient loading and unloading, easy maintenance and repair ‌ ‌
• Saving floor space: plate heat exchanger has a compact structure, small floor space, easy to install and layout.
• Small volume and compact structure: the volume of plate heat exchanger is 60% smaller than that of tube and shell heat exchanger with the same heat transfer area, and the total heat transfer coefficient is high, about 2000 ~ 3000W/(m²·K)
• Good anti-freezing effect: plate heat exchanger is with small size, distance scale is also small, low flow of water can also form a high degree of turbulence in plate heat exchanger, uniform temperature distribution, small probability of icing, good anti-freeze effect. ‌‌