An industrial heat exchanger package is a device that facilitates transfer of heat from one fluid to another. Some common types of industrial heat exchangers are shell and tube, spiral, and plate heat exchangers.
An increasingly popular type is the plate heat exchanger, which consists of many thin plates pressed together. The plates are stamped with grooves, so when they are placed together, the grooves create spaces or channels for the fluids to move through. The hot fluid will pass through the space created between plates 1 and 2, while the cold fluid will move between plates 2 and 3, the hot fluid between plates 3 and 4, with this alternating pattern continuing for the whole heat exchanger.
The grooves are designed so that the fluid moves across the whole plate. This, combined with the large number of plates, creates a very large surface area. The grooves also ensure that the fluid is kept in a turbulent state. These two items both increase the rate of heat transfer, making the plate heat exchanger the most efficient style of heat exchanger.