What are the advantages of stainless steel heat exchange tubes

Stainless steel heat exchange tubes are devices made of stainless steel, and they are one of the components of heat exchangers. They are placed inside the cylinder and are used for heat exchange between two media. Nowadays, the usage of stainless steel heat exchange tubes is increasing. So, what are the advantages of stainless steel heat exchange tubes? 

The stainless steel heat exchange tubes have the following advantages: 

The heat exchange tubes are made of thin-walled pipe materials with a thickness of 0.5 - 0.8mm. This design enhances the overall heat exchange performance. Under the same heat exchange area, the overall heat transfer coefficient is 2.121 - 8.408% higher than that of copper tubes. 

2. Due to the use of SUS304 high-quality stainless alloy steel as the material, it possesses high hardness, and the stiffness of the pipe has also significantly improved. Therefore, it has strong impact resistance and vibration resistance properties. 

3. Due to the smooth inner wall of the pipe, the thickness of the boundary layer flow layer is reduced, which not only enhances heat transfer but also improves the anti-scaling performance. To eliminate welding stress, the pipe is heat-treated at a temperature of 1050°C in a protective gas. Leakage checks are conducted on the pipes using pressure difference, and the gas pressure test is carried out to 10 MPa, with no pressure drop within 5 minutes. 

The main difference lies not in the heat transfer performance or corrosion resistance, but rather that copper pipes are less prone to scaling than stainless steel pipes. This is something that Chinese people have not realized. To give a simple example, commercial boilers in foreign countries do not require water treatment equipment, yet they can last for up to 15 years. The reason is that although water can also form scale on the inner walls of copper pipes, the scale formed is in the form of flocculent matter. In this case, as long as the water flow rate is increased, the scale cannot settle down. 

Secondly, comes the 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 evaporators and condensers are basically made of copper. 

Thirdly, the strength of stainless steel is slightly higher than that of copper. Therefore, the plates of the plate heat exchangers we see now are all made of stainless steel (of course, there are others as well, such as titanium plates and graphite plates), but the initial plates were made of copper.