Polaris - Heat Exchangers

The Polaris provides the most economical, efficient plate heat exchanger design in any application. You’ll find exactly the plate configuration you need. Correct plate geometry, patterns, and connections enable Polaris to customize ideal designs for HVAC, chemical processing, food processing, oil and gas refining, and many other uses. Multiple plate sizes are available for each connection size.

Compact design

Polaris plate heat exchangers are lightweight and use limited floor space, so they’re easy, safe, fast, and economical to ship, handle, and install.

Close temperature approach performance

Countercurrent flow takes heat exchange media in opposite directions across the plate for the most efficient heat transfer.

No cross-contamination

Polaris manufactures individually gasketed media circuits. The area between vents to the atmosphere, resulting in no interleakage.

Low hold-up volume

Inherent design advantages provide shorter response times and more accurate process control.

Minimum fouling

Uniform flow and high fluid turbulence with the Polaris plate design promote constant scrubbing action to reduce fouling.

Easy maintenance

Polaris plate heat exchangers provide low fouling and good drainage. Connections are in the front, and piping stays in place when service techs open the units.

Performance versatility

Multiple heating/cooling media can run with divider sections installed in the heat exchanger.

Expandability

To enlarge a Polaris heat exchanger, loosen the compression bolts and add the plates you need.

Water savings

Polaris PHEs economize cooling water and work well even with poor water quality.

More fluid-related savings

Polaris PHEs cut valve, piping, and pumping costs.

Greater heat exchanger performance efficiency

Plate heat exchangers from Polaris use less surface area to accomplish the same heat transfer as shell-and-tube exchangers.

Like all Polaris plate heat exchangers, these units feature plates embossed with precision-engineered herringbone patterns. Their alternating arrangement in the plate pack facilitates efficient, effective heat transfer.

Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger Advantages

Brazed PHEs from Polaris are especially useful for many HVAC applications. Polaris brazed heat exchangers give you these critical advantages:

• A sealed, compact system
• High temperature and pressure capability
• Gasket-free construction
• Excellent thermal efficiency
• Highly competitive pricing

Polaris Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers fit these demanding applications (and many more)

• Refrigeration
• Vapor condensers
• Hot water generators
• Liquid nitrogen cooling
• Steam heating
• Packaged systems
• Hydraulic oil cooling
• Heat recovery units
• Solar heating
• Heat pumps
• District heating

Get total separation of primary and secondary fluids with the Safety-Pair® Double-Wall Plate Heat Exchanger from Polaris.

Paired plates create an air space, making leaks visible from outside. Leaks reach the atmosphere between plates or drain channels in the inlet/outlet areas. Media can’t mix, and there’s no risk of contamination.

A Polaris Safety-Pair Double Wall Plate Heat Exchanger is your best, most economical choice when plumbing codes require double-wall separation — or any time that’s a critical element of a project.

You can assemble a double-wall heat exchanger from almost any of Polaris’s heat exchanger plates. Thus the units are available in the widest possible range of shapes and sizes. Like all Polaris products, they are also highly efficient, reliable, and easy to operate and maintain.

Applications for double-wall heat exchangers

Use the Polaris Safety-Pair Double-Wall Plate Heat Exchanger in any of these critical applications:

• Domestic hot water
• Milk and cream pasteurization
• Chemical industry uses
• Sanitary water for food processing
• Ultra-pure water
• Pharmaceutical industry

Polaris Semi-Welded Plate Heat Exchangers handle jobs that conventional plate exchangers can’t do – including ammonia refrigeration, CFCs, HCFCs, and aggressive process fluids.

Resistant to stress and leakage, Polaris’s semi-welded plate heat exchangers employ matched plate pairs (or cassettes) to isolate refrigerant or process fluids from the gasketing. Polaris Semi-welded Exchangers are so efficient they need just one-fifth of the refrigerant required by shell-and-tube exchangers to do the same work.

As with other Polaris PHEs, the plate pack assembly is between a static frame plate and a pressure plate, with bolts to tighten and compress the pack.

Semi-welded heat exchangers: flexible protection

Semi-welded units are as flexible as any gasketed heat exchangers while protecting against welded units’ leaks. This type of heat exchanger uses a unique approach — welded, then gasketed alternating channels.

Polaris semi-welded plate heat exchangers feature gaskets engineered to stand up to aggressive media. Non-aggressive media passes through gasketed channels. Despite partial welded construction, unit disassembly can easily replace gaskets or take care of other maintenance. Like all Polaris products, they are also highly efficient, reliable, and easy to operate and maintain.

Semi-Welded Heat Exchanger features

• Laser-welded plate cassettes
• Welds running outside the gasket groove for corrosion protection and increased heat transfer area
• Superior sealing capability
• Improved sealing under higher pressure
• Easy cleaning

The Polaris Shell and Plate Heat Exchanger delivers an engineered solution of great efficiency and effectiveness for specialized applications.

Shell and plate units comprise an outer pressure vessel that encloses a fully-welded circular plate pack. The resulting heat exchanger is strong and compact. Like other welded heat exchangers, it is gasket-free and without brazing. As such, it avoids the problems of leaks and corrosion that sometimes accompany gasketed construction.

The Polaris Shell and Plate Exchanger is an excellent selection for applications once filled by old-fashioned shell-and-tube heat exchangers. Compared to those types, the shell-and-plate design produces the same capacities in much lighter structures and far smaller footprints.

Shell and plate exchangers also feature superior heat transfer. They work well at high temperatures and under high pressures. They maintain complete structural integrity through constant temperature and pressure cycling over many years.

Polaris Shell and Plate Exchangers for Oil and Gas Applications

Like all Polaris units, shell and plate heat exchangers exhibit minimal fouling, close approach temperatures, and low maintenance requirements. Thanks to the excellent materials used in their construction, they stand up well to aggressive process fluids. They often feature in oil and gas production and other hydrocarbon processing applications.

Polaris Free-Flow Plate Heat Exchangers accommodate viscous fluids or those containing fibrous materials or larger particles. Wide-channeled horizontal ribbed pattern with no metal-to-metal contact allows free flow of particles that can block other heat exchangers.

In many ways, Free-Flow Heat Exchangers function similarly to conventional plate heat exchangers. They are suitable for heating, cooling, and heat recovery applications in various industries. Despite their specialized construction, the units are easy to disassemble for replacing gaskets or performing other maintenance. And like all Polaris products, they are also highly efficient, reliable, and easy to operate.

Specialized Applications for Free-Flow Heat Exchangers

However, their distinctive engineering and construction make them ideal for specialized applications, including

• Pulp and paper production
• Processing of beet sugar
• Beer mash processing at breweries
• Sludge processing, which includes a gamut of applications such as quenching oil, plating solutions, and work with crystals
• Grain processing
• Ethanol production
• Textile mills