SWEP B16

SWEP publishes a 1 mm maximum particle size for the B16, so the strainer screen needs openings smaller than that. Fit it on any stream that is not known to be clean, close to the inlet, with isolation so the screen can be pulled without draining the loop.

Without one, debris collects at the inlet port and in the first channels. Pressure drop rises on that side, flow falls and capacity follows it. The pack cannot be opened to remove it. On pure-water service the strainer body should be as copper free as the exchanger.

That depends on which B16 it is. The All-Stainless build on the datasheet stops at 50 plates. The copper-brazed SC builds catalogued on file run from 20 to 140. An undersized copper-free unit near the 50-plate limit therefore has no room to grow, and the fix is a larger frame or two units.

Oversizing has its own cost: flow per channel is low, heat transfer falls off and deposits settle.

The formula is 1.48 kg plus 0.12 kg per plate. A 20-plate unit is about 3.9 kg (8.55 lb) and a 50-plate unit about 7.5 kg (16.5 lb), before the fluid. Each channel holds 0.082 dm3, so a 50-plate pack carries roughly another 4 liters when full.

Support it by the body, on a shelf bracket or with a strap, and pipe to it without strain. The connections on the catalogued builds are 1 1/4 in, and lines that size are stiff enough to transmit real force. If a line has to be sprung into place to meet a port, that load stays on the braze joint for the life of the unit. Fix the alignment first.

It is cleaned the same way - solution circulated in place, in reverse, then rinsed - but the chemistry is less restricted, because there is no copper braze for the cleaner to attack. The stainless still sets limits: chloride-bearing acids are out.

What differs is the system around it. A B16 on ammonia or ultrapure water sits in a loop with its own rules about what may be introduced, so the cleaning agent and the rinse have to be acceptible to the loop as well as the exchanger. Build in valved flushing connections at installation. The procedure is on Cleaning in Place.

No. It means there is no copper in the wetted path, which solves two specific problems: ammonia, which attacks copper braze, and deionized or ultrapure water, which leaches it. For those the SPS build is the right construction.

It does not make the unit chloride resistant. The plates are 316, and 316 pits in pool water, seawater and brackish or chlorinated cooling water whatever the braze is. Read the code on the old nameplate before ordering. Catalogued B16 strings on file carry the SC code - copper brazed - so a nameplate reading SC is not an All-Stainless unit, and an SPS unit must not be replaced with one. See Plate and Brazing Materials.

SWEP publishes threaded and solder connections for the frame. The strings on file are all four-port sets at 1 1/4 in: plain 4x1 1/4", an internal-hex version, and versions written 4x1 1/4"(27) and 4x1 1/4"(45).

The bracketed figure is part of the connection specification, not a note. Two units identical up to that suffix have different connections, and the one with the wrong figure can leave the pipework short or fouling the bracket. Copy the whole string, brackets included.

These models are catalogued alongside the B16. Each has its own page with its dimensions, materials and part numbers.

SWEP B16DW - Double-wall brazed plate heat exchanger on the B16 frame, built for leak detection between circuits.

SWEP SXB16DW - Double-wall brazed plate heat exchanger on the B16 frame with the Sealix protective layer.