CPI manufactures a revolutionary shell and tube heat exchanger. The FLOATING TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER is standard equipment in our QUADRANT SR and SRS Series Thermal Oxidizer and has found success in other heat recovery applications. The FLOATING TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER is unlike any shell and tube heat exchanger. It is specially designed to be completely stress-free to promote longer equipment life and virtually no maintenance. Special designs are available for particulate laden air streams, including processes with silicone dioxide (SiO2), corrosive applications, high temperatures, and high pressures.
Floating Tube Heat Exchanger

Process

Floating Tube Heat Exchanger ProcessCPI has been a leader in the design and manufacture of catalytic and thermal oxidizers since 1969. Our custom engineered products have paved the way for continuous improvements in the traditional methods of design and manufacture. Throughout our years of experience, we have noticed an increasing market demand for improved heat exchanger designs. Our specialized design/applications team has approached this problem head-on with outstanding results. The FLOATING TUBE air-to-air heat exchanger by CPI has proven to be an innovative solution to an industry wide problem. As a designer and manufacturer of catalytic and thermal oxidizers since 1969, our focus has always been towards the continuing development of high quality, long-lasting pollution control equipment. Throughout our long history and experience, we recognized a common problem with many of the industry’s oxidation equipment - short equipment life, unreliable systems, and heavy maintenance costs have burdened users for too long. Keeping pace with the needs of an industry is not always an easy task. Specifically by revolutionizing air-to-air primary heat exchangers. Traditional shell and tube heat exchangers are very simple devices that transfer heat energy from one air stream to another. Heat exchangers are used for energy conservation in a multitude of applications, the most common being in thermal oxidation systems. Shell and tube primary heat exchanger are commonly made of stainless steel tubes welded to tube sheets and use a series of baffles to direct air over the tubes. The concept is simple, but the physics and engineering for success are complicated. As many suppliers and users have come to realize, controlling the thermal-mechanical stresses in high-temperature shell and tube heat exchangers is a difficult task. The traditional heat exchanger typically incorporates an expansion joint to absorb the tremendous thermal growth encountered inside of these systems. Throughout the operation of a heat exchanger, varying temperatures, differential expansion, and thermal cycling will put an incredible amount of stress on these metallic components. This uncontrollable stress is the cause for premature and structural failure and unacceptable performance. Heat exchangers using old expansion joint designs will present users with cracked welds, internal leakage, bent baffles and tube sheets, or melted and exploded tubes. These very common problems are the reason that we developed, designed, and have refined our FLOATING TUBE shell and tube heat exchanger.

Floating Tube Heat Exchanger Process Diagram
FLOATING TUBE heat exchangers offer unheard of resistance to the thermal stress and fatigue common in every other type shell and tube heat exchanger. This revolutionary solution eliminates heat exchanger failure for industry leading equipment life without any maintenance.
The extremely adaptable design of our FLOATING TUBE heat exchanger’s allows Catalytic Products International to custom design the heat exchanger around your exact requirements. Whether used for any of our custom air pollution control systems, secondary heat recovery solutions, or OEM energy recovery applications, our FLOATING TUBE heat exchanger’s provide unmatched performance.
The heat transfer matrix is made up of all stainless steel designed for the particular air stream. This means the tubes, the tube sheets, and the baffle sheets are all stainless steel. By correctly matching the metallurgy to the characteristics of the application, you can be assured that all of our FLOATING TUBE heat exchangers are designed for long reliable performance. The propriety design of our FLOATING TUBE heat exchangers relies on a stress-free package that does not hinder tube growth. Every single tube is allowed to expand or contract at individual rates. There are no expansion joints or packed seals to break or degrade. This revolutionary design utilizes a system that creates “FREE FLOATING” tubes and zero leakages. The system is insulated with a high-quality insulation system that retains heat for the highest performance, while reducing shell temperatures for safety and eliminated shell deformation. Each unit is custom designed for connection to or retrofitting into existing processes or as new equipment in our oxidation and heat recovery systems. The evolution of the FLOATING TUBE heat exchanger means longer equipment life, less maintenance, no downtime from failures, and no more leaking expansion joints or packed seals. All adds up to a greater return on your heat recovery investments.
Applications for FLOATING TUBE Heat Exchangers

Applications for FLOATING TUBE Heat Exchangers

Primary heat recovery supplied on Catalytic Products International oxidation equipment:

Secondary heat recovery supplied for:

  • Return heat to ovens, dryers, kilns
  • Building heating

Retrofit/Replace/Repair damaged heat exchangers

Integrate heat recovery into OEM equipment:

  • Ovens, dryers, kilns, furnaces

Customized solutions including:

  • High thermal efficiencies
  • Corrosive air streams
  • Cooling applications
  • High Temperatures

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