Air Cooled Heat Exchangers

Fin-fan coolers and air-cooled condensers depend on the fin tube for almost all of their heat transfer surface. We supply fin tubes and complete bundles matched to your thermal design.

What matters in an air cooler

In an air-cooled heat exchanger the air-side heat transfer coefficient is roughly one tenth of the tube-side coefficient. Finned surface is the only practical way to balance the two sides, and the fin type determines how much surface you can fit into a given bundle volume, how much fan power you need and how the unit behaves after ten years in service.

• Extruded fins for the best performance per metre and long-term stability of the bond.
• Embedded (G) fins where metal temperatures exceed the limits of tension-wound fins.
• L/LL/KL fins for clean air and cost-sensitive projects.
• HF welded and laser welded fins for high temperature, corrosive or erosive streams.

Typical air cooler duties we support

Duty	Recommended fin	Notes
Refinery overhead condenser	Embedded G or extruded	High metal temperature, hydrocarbon tube side
Gas cooler / aftercooler	Extruded bimetal	Clean air, aluminium fins
Air-cooled condenser (ACC)	HF welded or integral	Large bundles, steam or two-phase flow
Compressor intercooler	Integral or extruded	Compact bundles, copper or aluminium
HVAC condenser	L/LL or integral	Copper tube, aluminium fin

What we need to quote a bundle

1. Tube side: fluid, flow rate, inlet and outlet temperature, design pressure.
2. Air side: ambient design temperature, altitude, allowable air-side pressure drop.
3. Bundle geometry: number of rows, tubes per row, tube length, pitch and fin geometry if already defined.
4. Materials and any project specification (ASME, API 661, customer standard).

If you have a thermal design from a software package, send the output — we will produce the tubes to match the calculated geometry exactly, including bare end sections and header details.