How Automation Became a Benefit of Heat Exchangers

Two of the biggest advantages of custom thermal solutions like heat exchangers are that they help companies lower their consumption of energy and that they don’t require as much maintenance as more traditional solutions. Alone, these benefits are more than enough to give companies that utilize heat exchangers a significant competitive advantage. However, by solving the conventional challenges of electrical thermal management, heat exchangers have also helped pave the way for more innovative technologies that help industries streamline their operations even further, such as automated equipment.

Simpler, yet more advanced, heat transfer

Heat exchangers have substantially advanced the state of electrical thermal management, but they’ve done so making the process of transferring heat much less complicated. For example, unlike solutions such as air conditioners and air compressors, heat exchangers don’t rely on chilling air and then circulating it through an enclosure to combat electrical waste heat. Instead, they focus on transferring the heat to prevent it from accumulating, which effectively prevents heat pockets that could damage sensitive circuitry and other components. The heat transfer processes they utilize, such as natural/forced convection, conduction, and phase-change cooling, are much more eco-friendly and can be accomplished with simpler, more efficient cooling technology.

Consistently reliable performance

Without the need to chill air, heat exchangers don’t need air conditioning or compressing apparatus. In fact, heat exchangers often don’t consist of external moving components beyond one or a few small fans. The hard work occurs within the heat exchanger itself, where an environmentally friendly cooling fluid absorbs waste heat and transfers it to a cooler area of the unit. The fluid dissipates the heat and then flows back to continue the cycle. This process can continue non-stop for significantly longer than traditional solutions can operate, and they can do so without needing to repair or replace parts of the heat exchanger.

Automated cooling at lower costs

That ability to continue operating with minimal interaction is a crux to heat exchangers’ contribution to automation. Even large automated machinery can operate at optimal capacity without suffering from heating or cooling issues, which means companies can further reduce their overall need for system maintenance. However, besides reduced human interaction, heat exchangers have also helped make automation more mainstream by reducing the costs of keeping the technology properly cooled. Compared to traditional electrical cooling methods, transferring heat doesn’t require large amounts of energy, which means implementing automated solutions that are cooled by heat exchangers won’t substantially impact a company’s overhead.

For more information about how heat exchangers have benefited the journey to automation, call Noren Thermal Solutions in Taylor, TX, at 866-936-6736.