Paul Mueller Company Academy

When doing scheduled maintenance, troubleshooting, or modifying your process, it’s important to know how to safely and quickly take your plate heat exchanger (PHE) apart and put it back together again. While the manufacturer’s word is always the bottom line on this subject, here are some simple guidelines that apply to nearly all PHE’s.

Heat exchangers all work by passing a hot fluid and a cold fluid across opposite sides of a piece of metal. The heat from one fluid passes across the metal (which is thermally conductive) into the other fluid without the fluids making contact. High fluid velocity, high turbulence, high surface area and a large temperature differential all contribute to more efficient heat transfer. However, different designs are more efficient than others depending on the application.

Hops are harvested once a year, starting in mid-August and ending in early September. Hops are used in the brewing process to add aroma and bitterness. Typically, all beers contain at least one hop variety, in order to balance the sweetness of the malt with the bitterness of the hop. The strength of the hop character can be determined by the quantity of hops put in and at what point during the brewing process it occurs. In general, the later hops are added the more aromatic the beer becomes, but it takes ample trial and error to find the perfect time to add the perfect hop in order to create your desired flavor.