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[November 2008]
ESK and Pfaudler Agree a Sales Partnership
ESK Ceramics GmbH & Co. KG, together with Pfaudler Werke GmbH, is launching an innovative plate heat exchanger. ESK is producing the ceramic heat exchangers on a large scale for the first time. Pfaudler will handle global sales of the parts from early October.
“Pfaudler has an international sales network with very good contacts to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries,” says Andreas Lemke, head of metallurgy and heat exchangers at ESK. “It will allow us to reach customers with corrosive applications all over the world."
Pfaudler, of Schwetzingen, Germany, is the world-leading manufacturer of glass-lined components and products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. “By working with ESK, we can round off our portfolio and offer our customers new, innovative solutions,” explains Bruno Stoltz, sales director of Pfaudler. “Since ceramic heat exchangers conduct heat better, we can offer our customers the same performance with smaller units.” The sales agreement envisages ESK supplying three different models of heat exchanger: sealed, semi-welded and the innovative monolithic products. These versions can be used for heaters and coolers (liquid-liquid and liquid-vapor) and condensation applications.
ESK’s novel production technology, diffusion welding, makes it the first manufacturer in the world to produce ceramic-plate heat exchangers on an industrial scale. Companies in the chemical and related industries make particularly high demands on the materials for plate heat exchangers. The devices undergo chemical attack from corrosive substances such as caustic soda. Plates of conventional materials, such as stainless steel do not last long in such a milieu. But the plates made of ESK’s EKasic silicon carbide ceramic are corrosion-resistant in contact with acids, alkalis and hot water, and therefore have much longer lifetimes. In addition, the material is extremely lightweight, heat resistant and thermally conductive. As a result, ESK can manufacture very compact, high-performance units.
Heat exchangers transfer heat from one fluid stream to another, for example from a liquid to a gas. Applications include evaporation and condensation of aggressive chemicals at high and low temperatures. Plate heat exchangers are a particular form of heat exchanger characterized by a compact design.
ENDS