The proprietary design plate-type heat exchangers developed, fabricated and supplied by APEX Group are heavy-duty exchangers for handling large volumes of gases for heat recovery and gas handling applications.

Applications & Industries
APEX Group has proven the suitability of its products for the following fields of applications:

• Gas Turbine Exhaust Recovery
• Combustion Air Preheaters
• Gas/Gas Reheaters
• Gas Coolers
• Heat Recovery from Incinerators
• DENOX Applications
• DESOX Applications

Fluids Handled
These products are suitable for handling a large diversity of fluids, such as:

• Combustion Air
• Fluegas from combustion of: gaseous fuels, liquid fuels, coal, wood, solid waste
• Vapour, condensing or non-condensing
• Industrial exhaust streams

Block Design
The elementary blocks used for multi-block modular constructions are fully shop-assembled as self-supporting blocks designed for ease of transport and field erection.

Heat Transfer Core
The core is made up of smooth flat plates, which create alternating passages for the two fluids. The plates are sealed along the edges by welding according to proprietary design and manufacturing techniques to prevent any leakage of the higher-pressure fluids into the lower-pressure fluid inside the core. Spacers are located between the plates at regular intervals to ensure a uniform spacing between plates in operation. The spacers can be “spot” or “continuous”. The spot spacers are small and provide minimum flow obstruction. Spot spacers ensure a minimum fouling tendency and maximize the effectiveness of cleaning.

Casing
The casing provides the housing of the core and gives the block its structural strength. The casing is provided with integral flanges for block-to-block assembly and connection of the ductwork.

Sealing Mechanism
The core is sealed against fluid leakage by a proprietary sealing mechanism, which allows the thermal expansion of the core inside the casing at all operating conditions.

Modular Construction
Large heat exchanger units are designed for modular construction from elementary blocks. The modular construction allows designing the blocks for optimum size and optimum material selection while keeping to a minimum the fieldwork.

Large units are assembled at site from elementary blocks.

Extremely large units can be designed in parallel trains to simplify the structural support design in relation to the large weight and thermal expansion.

Preparation for Transport, Transport & Storage
Each unit is designed for optimum transport of the modules and for optimum erection at site. Each transport module is fully shop-assembled in the fabrication shop and provided with permanent and/or temporary lifting lugs for handling during transport and during erection.

Depending on the size and destination of the unit, the shipping modules can be designed for transport by container or as loose items. The size and weight limitations of the containers allow the design of convenient modules for most applications and therefore most of the units are shipped containerised.

The standard preparation for transport consists of:

• marking of each shipping component for easy identification during erection
• installing and bracing the module on a transport skid
• clearly marking the lifting lugs to be used for transport and field erection

As a standard the modules are shipped suitably packed for three months storage at site.

Packing in wooden crates is normally not practices but can be provided at customer’s specific request.

Operation & Maintenance
During operation at normal capacities the heat exchanger units require no regular inspections or operator’s attention. Periodic observation at large intervals is recommended to detect and correct any unusual behaviour.

Cleaning
When no permanent fouling other than normal scaling is expected cleaning is usually not required. It is, however, recommended to water wash the unit at least once in 3 – 5 years. Permanent cleaning devices can be supplied for applications with a high fouling potential.

APEX Group offers a range of tubular exchangers of proprietary or conventional design used as heat recovery units for a diversity of fired and non-fired installations.

The tubular exchangers may be supplied as stand-alone heat recovery units or in combination with plate-type and glass enamelled or teflon coated exchangers to form complex, integrated heat recovery units.

Applications & Industries
APEX Group has proven the suitability of its products for the following fields of applications:

• Liquid / Air
• Liquid / Gas Reheaters
• Steam / Air
• Steam / Gas
• Process Streams / Air
• Process Streams / Gas
• Heat Recovery Coils
• DENOX Applications
• DESOX Applications
• Steam/Water Coils
• Glycol Coils
• Oil / Air

Fluids Handled
These products are suitable for handling a large diversity of fluids, such as:

• Air
• Fluegas from combustion of: gaseous fuels, liquid fuels, coal, wood, solid waste
• Steam, water, glycol, oil
• Vapour, condensing or non-condensing
• Process Streams
• Industrial exhaust streams

Aluminium Finned Products
Steel tubes with aluminium fins, produced under high standards of quality by APEX Group using highly qualified personnel, are suitable for handling only clean gases, most commonly air. APEX Group offers a diversity of designs specially developed for applications such as air tempering and air preheating for combustion processes and for the process industry. The heating medium is steam, water/condensate, or water/glycol mixtures for freezing environments. APEX Group also sells Finned tubes directly.

Steel Finned Products
For heavy-duty environments, such as fluegases or industrial gases, the tubular coils are made of steel tubes with welded steel fins. Such units of a conventional design are used as convection section modules and gas-cooling modules for fired heaters, environmental projects, process industry, etc.

Bare Tube Products
For applications with excessive fouling tendency or with excessively high temperatures the coils are made of bare tubes. On-line water washing devices may be provided for moist and/or dust-laden gases operating at low temperatures. Bare tube products may be designed in combination with finned products to cover a wider range of process conditions within the same apparatus.

Design Codes

• ASME (ASME I & ASME VIII/Div1 Qualified)
• ANSI
• PED
• AD Merkblätter
• EN
• Swedish Code
• Czech Code
• Russian Code
• IBR
• Etc.

APEX Group develops, fabricates and supplies a range of proprietary plate-type and tubular heat exchangers coated with glass (or enamelled exchangers) for handling highly corrosive fluids.

The corrosion-resistant glass layers are applied on a metallic substrate (plate or tube). This metallic substrates imparts mechanical strength to heat transfer surfaces during operation or during water washing.

Applications & Industries
APEX Group has proven the suitability of its products for the following fields of applications:

• Gas Turbine Exhaust Recovery
• Combustion Air Preheaters
• Gas/Gas Reheaters
• Gas Coolers
• Heat Recovery from Incinerators
• DENOX Applications
• DESOX Applications
• Steam/Water Coils
• Glycol Coils

Fluids Handled
These products are suitable for handling a large diversity of fluids, such as:

• Combustion Air
• Fluegas from combustion of: gaseous fuels, liquid fuels, coal, wood, solid waste
• Steam, water, glycol
• Vapour, condensing or non-condensing
• Liquids, subcooled or boiling
• Industrial exhaust streams

Glass-Coated Plates
These exchangers are built from parallel glass-coated plates assembled by proprietary methods. The plates core is free to expand preventing cracking of the glass layer during the thermal cycles. The rigid frame consists of panels, which are glass coated in the area in contact with the corrosive gases.

Glass-Coated Tubes
Glass-coated tubes offer an alternative design to glass exchangers characterized by a remarkable resistance against high differential pressure and pressure and temperature shocks during operation. The glass tubes are placed in a rigid frame. A special sealing method of the tubes in the tubesheets prevents leakage. The glass-coated metallic tubes are easy to replace, provide a good resistance against acid corrosion and do not break. The tubes can contain fluids pressurised at any level, e.g. high-pressure steam or water.