Copper vs Stainless steel heat exchanger

A heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat from a hot fluid to a cold fluid to meet specified process requirements. It is an industrial application for convective heat transfer and heat transfer. There are many different style heat exchangers. And different material. Now we mainly find the difference between copper heat exchanger and stainless steel heat exchanger.

The difference between the stainless steel tube heat exchanger and the copper tube heat exchanger is that the materials are different, one is stainless steel and the other is made of copper. This is the difference in material. When we choose these two types of tubes, we will consider the heat transfer performance and corrosion resistance.

We all know that copper tubes are less prone to fouling than stainless steel tubes. Foreign commercial boilers do not use water to treat equipment, but the life span is as long as 15 years. The reason is that although water can also form scale on the copper pipe wall, it produces only flocculent scale. In this case, as long as the water flow rate is increased, the scale cannot be precipitated. But Stainless steel heat exchangers have a longer life and are more resistant to corrosion and do not have to worry about water contamination.

The second is to consider heat transfer performance. The thermal conductivity of copper is higher than that of stainless steel, so the heat transfer coefficient of copper tubes of the same shape is higher than that of stainless steel tubes. Therefore, The heat exchange tubes used in the copper evaporator，roll bond evaporator are basically made of copper.

Third, the strength of stainless steel is higher than that of copper, so now we see that the plate heat exchanger plate is stainless steel, but the original plate is also copper. Of course, the price of copper is much higher than that of stainless steel.

 Now, Copper Heat Exchanger Is widely used for freezing industries,such as plating,oxidation,chemical  industry,metallurgy,light industry, shipbuilding,heating, pharmaceutical,foodstuff etc, also for leather chiller, injection molding machine chiller, print chiller,PV shoe machine chiller and so on. 

About the stainless steel heat exchanger. Shell & Tube heat exchangers constructed from 304 and 316 Stainless Steel are corrosion resistant and can be built to meet various industrial, pharmaceutical, food, dairy, and beverage requirements. Other material and alloys including (Hastelloy, AL-6XN), titanium, copper-nickel alloys, copper, steel, carbon steel and brass are also available. Coils are used in many applications, each having their own unique challenges. Brazed plate heat exchangers are a popular option with their compact size and high efficiency designs and can be supplied with 316 S/S plates and copper or nickel braze. Brazed plate units are up to six times smaller than alternative methods of heat exchange with the same capacity.

When we choose a heat exchanger, we must consider various factors. Now there are many stainless steel heat exchangers in the market, which has made the stainless steel heat exchanger tube industry develop a lot.