Industrial Web Search Buyer's Guide Sector
Equipment that transfers heat between fluids or a fluid and a solid without mixing, used for heating, cooling, condensing, or evaporating. This includes shell-and-tube, plate, air-cooled, and compact heat exchangers, as well as heat sinks, cold plates, coolant distribution units, dry coolers, and thermal interface components.
Overview
A working orientation to the sector before you compare specific equipment: how the equipment is classified, what actually constrains the choice, and the kinds of company you will end up talking to.
Buyers in this sector typically follow one of three paths. If transferring heat between processes, you're seeking a process heat exchanger, focusing on duty, terminal temperatures, fouling, pressure drop, and code. For rejecting heat to air, consider an air-cooled exchanger or dry cooler, taking into account factors such as design air temperature, fan power, noise, and footprint. If cooling electronics or machinery, thermal management hardware, heat sinks, cold plates, and coolant distribution units are needed, prioritizing thermal resistance, heat load, and loop architecture.
In the process path, choose between shell-and-tube exchangers for high pressure or temperature, or plate heat exchangers with various designs for cleanability and performance. Compact options like plate-fin and spiral exchangers suit space-restricted applications. Air-cooled exchangers use finned tubes to reject heat without water cooling, though their performance is weather-dependent.
Accompanying the exchangers are thermal management components. Heat sinks conduct heat into the air, cold plates transfer heat in a liquid medium, and thermal interface materials fill gaps between components and cooling systems. Systems like coolant distribution units and dry coolers help remove heat from buildings. These components are assessed based on thermal resistance or heat capacity rather than heat transfer area.
Key factors guiding the selection of heat exchangers include the required duty and approach temperature, allowable pressure drop, design pressure and temperature codes, fouling potential, materials needed, and site constraints. Many of these factors are dictated by specific processes and locations, leading to varied quotes for similar duties.
There are five main types of suppliers in this sector, each impacting how to interpret quotes. Custom fabricators design shell-and-tube and code-compliant exchangers, holding necessary certifications and thermal ratings. Catalog manufacturers offer standardized products with third-party-certified performance, sold through distributors. Thermal management specialists focus on components like heat sinks and cold plates, often working with the electronics industry. System integrators package exchangers with pumps and controls, while repair shops retube and rebuild existing units, often providing quick solutions. Understanding these distinctions is important as they influence design responsibility, performance guarantees, and lead times.
Sourcing Considerations
The decisions below are the ones that most often cause regret later. The detail sits in the guides at the bottom of this page.
Every sizing decision flows from the heat duty and the four terminal temperatures. Write down the fluid, flow rate, inlet temperature, and required outlet temperature for both streams, check that the heat given up by one equals the heat absorbed by the other, and note whether either stream changes phase. Then decide how close an approach the process truly needs, because that single number affects the exchanger size more than almost anything else.
Design pressure and design temperature on each side, including upset, steam-out, and cleaning conditions, set the wall thicknesses, flange ratings, and materials, and they decide whether the unit must be built and stamped under a pressure vessel code. Confirm what the installation jurisdiction requires, whether ASME construction with National Board registration, a Canadian Registration Number, or CE marking under the Pressure Equipment Directive, and add any industry standard your site invokes. These requirements decide which suppliers are eligible to bid.
Fouling and differential expansion are the two service realities that most often turn a good thermal design into a bad purchase. Decide how each fluid will foul and how you intend to clean it, which determines whether you need a removable bundle, an open gasketed plate pack, or a sealed unit cleaned chemically. Decide how large the temperature difference between the two sides will be, which determines whether a fixed tubesheet needs an expansion joint or a U-tube, or whether a floating head is the better answer. Then confirm the plant has the clearance to pull a bundle.
Material selection has to satisfy both sides at once, and failures usually come from the side nobody was thinking about. Cooling water with chlorides, process fluids with copper sensitivity, galvanic couples between tubes and tubesheets, and high-velocity erosion each rule out materials that look fine for the primary fluid. Specify materials by ASTM or ASME specification and grade rather than by generic name, state any materials you will not accept, and require material test reports with the shipment.
A quote is a prediction, and two quotes for the same duty can differ in area because they assume different heat transfer coefficients and fouling factors, not because one supplier is better. Ask every bidder to use the same fouling factor and to show clean and fouled ratings, assumed fluid properties, and margin on the thermal datasheet. For catalog equipment, confirm the specific model is in a third-party certification directory. For custom equipment under a performance guarantee, specify the test code that will verify its performance after installation.
Exchangers arrive with a supply boundary, and unpriced responsibilities cause regret. Pressure drop sizes pumps or fans; nozzle positions dictate piping; bundle length defines pull space; and liquid systems require coolant, filtration, and facility loop integration. Define the boundary and integrated responsibility early, and review dimensional drawings, weights, and maintenance clearances before approving the thermal design.
Glossary
The terms you will meet on a datasheet, a thermal rating, or a supplier quote, in plain English.
An exchanger that rejects heat from a tube-side fluid directly to ambient air moved across finned tubes by fans. It removes the need for cooling water, so the buying decision turns on site air temperature, noise and footprint, and fan power rather than on water supply and treatment.
The smallest temperature difference between the two streams at any point in the exchanger, usually at the outlet end in counterflow. Specifying a closer approach requires more surface area, so it is one of the two or three factors that most strongly drive the size of the unit you are quoted for.
A plate exchanger in which the stamped plates are permanently brazed together, usually with copper or nickel filler, with no gaskets or frame. It is compact and suited to clean fluids at higher pressures, but it cannot be opened for cleaning or have plates added later, which limits its use to low-fouling services.
The mark applied by a manufacturer holding an ASME Certificate of Authorization to indicate that a vessel was built under the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, with the U stamp designating Section VIII, Division 1 vessels. Whether you need a stamped unit depends on the design conditions and the jurisdiction where it will be installed, and the answer changes who is allowed to quote.
A metal plate with internal coolant passages that mounts directly against a heat-producing component, such as a power electronics module or processor, and carries heat away in a liquid. It is specified by thermal resistance, allowable pressure drop, coolant compatibility, and mounting footprint rather than by heat transfer area.
A packaged assembly of pumps, a heat exchanger, filtration, and controls that circulates a secondary coolant loop and transfers its heat to a facility water or refrigerant loop. Buyers specify it by heat capacity, flow and pressure, coolant type, and the approach between the two loops.
Extra wall thickness added to pressure-retaining parts so they remain within code thickness after anticipated metal loss over the design life. It is set in the specification, not chosen by the fabricator alone, and a larger allowance adds weight and cost while a smaller one shortens service life.
The maximum pressure and the coincident temperature the exchanger is designed and code-rated to withstand on each side, as distinct from the normal operating conditions. They set wall thickness, flange ratings, and material choice, and they should include upset, steam-out, and cleaning conditions rather than only steady operation.
A closed-loop air-cooled unit that cools a liquid, typically water or a glycol mixture, by blowing ambient air over a finned coil. Unlike a cooling tower, it does not evaporate water, so the liquid cannot be cooled below the ambient dry-bulb temperature, which bounds where it can be used.
The rate of heat transferred in the exchanger, stated in kilowatts or British thermal units per hour. It is the starting point for every quote, and a supplier cannot size a unit until the duty is consistent with the flow rates and temperature changes you give for both streams.
A shell-and-tube construction in which both tubesheets are welded to the shell so the bundle cannot be removed. It is the simplest and lowest-cost arrangement, but the shell side can only be cleaned chemically and large temperature differences between shell and tubes may require an expansion joint.
A shell-and-tube construction in which one tubesheet is free to move inside the shell, allowing the bundle to expand independently and to be withdrawn for mechanical cleaning of both sides. It handles large temperature differences and fouling fluids at the cost of more complex construction.
An allowance for the thermal resistance of deposits that will accumulate on heat transfer surfaces in service, expressed as a resistance added to the clean design. A larger fouling factor requires a larger exchanger, so the figure is as much a commercial decision as a technical one and should be stated explicitly in the specification.
An exchanger built from corrugated metal plates sealed by elastomer gaskets and clamped in a frame, with alternating hot and cold channels between plates. It can be opened for cleaning, and its capacity can be changed by adding plates, but gasket material limits temperature and chemical compatibility, and the plate pack needs periodic regasketing.
A double-pipe or multitube exchanger in which the tubes are bent into a U so that both connections sit at one end, giving true counterflow in a compact, modular unit. It suits small duties, high pressures, and services with a temperature cross where a single shell-and-tube unit would not work.
A passive finned component that conducts heat from a device into the surrounding air, with or without a fan. It is rated by thermal resistance from its base to ambient under a stated airflow, and that rating is only meaningful if the airflow and mounting conditions match your installation.
A single figure that summarizes how readily heat passes from one fluid to the other through the wall, including both film resistances, the wall, and fouling. A supplier's quoted U-value is a prediction, and comparing quotes on area alone, without accounting for the assumed U-value and fouling, is a common sourcing error.
A compact exchanger made of alternating layers of flat separator sheets and corrugated fins, most often brazed aluminum, that can handle several streams in one core. It offers very high surface area per unit volume for clean gases and cryogenic or low-temperature duties but cannot be cleaned mechanically.
The pressure loss a fluid experiences as it passes through the exchanger, on each side separately. The allowable pressure drop you specify constrains velocity and, therefore, heat transfer, and setting it too tightly forces a larger exchanger, while setting it too loosely shifts the cost to pumps and fans.
A shell-and-tube arrangement, such as U-tube or floating head, in which the tube bundle can be pulled out of the shell for inspection and cleaning. It requires clearance in the plant layout equal to the bundle length, which is easy to forget when selecting the exchanger on paper.
An exchanger in which one fluid flows inside a bundle of tubes and the other flows over the outside of the tubes within a cylindrical shell. It is the most widely specified construction for high pressures, high temperatures, and large duties, and it is the configuration governed by TEMA and most of the industry design standards.
An exchanger made from two long metal strips wound into a pair of concentric spiral channels, giving a single curved flow path for each fluid. The self-cleaning single-channel suits slurries, fibrous fluids, and fouling services that would otherwise plug a tube bundle or a plate pack.
One of three levels of mechanical design standards in the TEMA Standards: Class R for the severe requirements of petroleum and related processing, Class C for moderate commercial and general process requirements, and Class B for chemical process service. The class sets minimum thicknesses, corrosion allowances, and construction details, so it must be stated in the specification, or the fabricator will choose.
A three-letter code from the TEMA nomenclature that describes a shell-and-tube exchanger by front head type, shell type, and rear head type, for example BEM or AES. It is the shorthand used on datasheets and quotes, and the rear head letter tells you immediately whether the bundle is fixed, U-tube, or removable.
A condition in which the cold stream leaves hotter than the hot stream leaves, which is only possible when the flow arrangement is close to pure counterflow. Many exchanger configurations cannot achieve a cross, so identifying one early narrows the type options before sizing.
A compliant material, such as a grease, pad, or phase-change film, placed between a component and a heat sink or cold plate to fill microscopic air gaps and reduce contact resistance. It is a small line item that can dominate the total thermal resistance of an electronics cooling path if chosen poorly.
The supplier's calculated performance of a proposed exchanger at the specified conditions, usually presented on a datasheet with area, U-value, pressure drops, and outlet temperatures. It is the document you are buying against, and it should state the fouling factors, fluid properties, and margin used so that rival quotes can be compared on equal terms.
The thick plate into which the ends of the tubes are expanded or welded and which separates the tube-side and shell-side fluids. The tube-to-tubesheet joint is the most common leak path in a shell-and-tube exchanger, so the joint type and any associated testing belong in the specification.
A removable bundle in which each tube is bent into a U so that both ends terminate in a single tubesheet, allowing free thermal expansion without a floating head. It is economical and handles large temperature differences, but the interior of the bends is hard to clean mechanically, which limits its use to clean tube-side fluids.
A plate exchanger in which the plate pack is welded rather than gasketed, sometimes within a shell, extending plate technology to higher temperatures and aggressive fluids that would destroy gaskets. It gives up the ability to open the pack for cleaning or add plates, so it suits services where chemical cleaning is acceptable.
Standards
What each standard governs and why a buyer should care. Which ones apply depends on the pressure, the fluid, the industry, and the country where the exchanger will be installed.
Pressure vessel codes and registration
Published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The construction code for pressure vessels, which is how most heat exchangers are classified, covering design, materials, fabrication, inspection, testing, and certification. TEMA, HEI, and the API exchanger standards all assume the pressure parts are built to this code unless another pressure design code is specified. It applies when the exchanger operates above the threshold at which the jurisdiction requires code construction, which most US states and Canadian provinces adopt by law, or when the owner's specification or insurer requires it. Only a shop holding an ASME Certificate of Authorization can apply the U stamp, so this requirement filters the supplier list before any thermal design is discussed. Confirm the applicable threshold with the authority having jurisdiction over the location where the unit will be installed.
Administered by the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors (NBBI). Registration of code-stamped pressure vessels, under which the National Board assigns a number and retains the Manufacturer's Data Report. It is a construction record rather than a design standard. Many US and Canadian jurisdictions require registration for stamped vessels, and the obligation sits with the owner even though the fabricator files the paperwork. A registered vessel has a traceable record, which matters when repairs, alterations, or a matching replacement are needed years later. Ask whether the quoted unit will be registered.
The directive is issued by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union; EN 13445 is published by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and adopted nationally by bodies such as DIN in Germany and BSI in the United Kingdom. The directive sets the essential safety requirements for pressure equipment, including heat exchangers, placed on the market in the European Union and European Economic Area, with CE marking as the evidence of conformity. EN 13445 is the harmonized standard series for unfired pressure vessels that gives a presumption of conformity. It applies if the exchanger will be installed in the EU or EEA, or if you are buying from a European fabricator who builds to EN 13445 rather than ASME. The two regimes use different inspection bodies and marking, and a unit built to one is not automatically acceptable under the other, so state the destination at the RFQ stage.
Administered separately by each Canadian province and territory, with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standard B51 providing the common framework the jurisdictions reference. A pressure vessel design must be registered with the provincial or territorial safety authority before the equipment can be installed there, and the registration number identifies the design. It applies to any exchanger installed in Canada. Registration is by design and by jurisdiction, so a design registered in one province is not automatically registered in another, and obtaining it takes time and design documentation. Ask whether the supplier already holds a registration for the design being quoted.
Industry design and rating standards
Published by the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA). The mechanical design, fabrication, and nomenclature standards for shell-and-tube heat exchangers, supplementing the pressure vessel code with exchanger-specific detail such as tubesheet design, baffle spacing, minimum thicknesses, tolerances, and the three-letter type designation. The standards define three mechanical classes, R, C, and B, for different service severities. Specifying TEMA is the standard way to define construction quality beyond the minimum required by the pressure code for process, utility, and general industrial shell-and-tube units. The class you name sets corrosion allowances, thicknesses, and construction details, which directly affect cost and life. If you do not specify a class, the fabricator will select one, and rival quotes may not be comparable.
Published by the Heat Exchange Institute (HEI), a trade association of manufacturers. Design, construction, testing, and performance standards for heat exchange and vacuum equipment used in power generation and heavy industry, including shell-and-tube heat exchangers, gasketed plate heat exchangers, steam surface condensers, closed feedwater heaters, and air-cooled condensers. They apply when you are specifying exchangers, condensers, or feedwater heaters for a power plant or a large utility-style process installation, or when your engineering firm's specifications reference HEI. The publications include typical purchaser requirements and datasheet formats, which makes them a practical template for writing a specification that manufacturers can quote against without ambiguity.
Published by the American Petroleum Institute (API). Requirements for shell-and-tube (660), air-cooled (661), plate-type (662), and hairpin (663) heat exchangers in petroleum, petrochemical, and natural gas service, covering mechanical design, materials, fabrication, inspection, testing, and preparation for shipment. They build on the pressure code and, for shell-and-tube units, on TEMA Class R unless otherwise specified. They apply when the exchanger is going into a refinery, petrochemical plant, gas processing facility, or any site whose engineering specifications invoke API, and they are not normally specified for HVAC, food, or light industrial duties. API construction is more demanding than general industrial practice and raises both cost and lead time, so specify it where your industry or owner requires it rather than by habit.
Published by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). Performance rating standards for liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers (AHRI 400, with AHRI 401 as the metric edition) and for forced-circulation air-cooling and air-heating coils (AHRI 410), each backed by a certification program under which production models are tested by a third party and listed in a public directory. They apply when you are buying plate heat exchangers or coils for heating, cooling, or district energy applications and want independently verified performance rather than a manufacturer's calculation alone; some building energy codes reference these ratings. A certified rating is the closest thing this sector has to a like-for-like basis for comparing quotes. Check that the specific model quoted is in the certification directory, not just the product family.
Hygienic, material, and performance verification
Published by 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc. (3-A SSI) in the United States. Hygienic design and construction criteria for equipment handling milk, food, and similar products, including separate standards for plate-type and tubular heat exchangers that cover materials, surface finish, cleanability, and drainability. They apply when the exchanger will contact dairy, food, beverage, or pharmaceutical product and your customers, regulators, or quality system require hygienic design. Equipment that meets a 3-A standard may bear the 3-A Symbol under license. Hygienic construction is a different discipline from pressure design, and a fabricator experienced in one may not be qualified in the other, so ask specifically whether the supplier holds 3-A Symbol authorization for the exchanger type you need.
Published by the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG), a consortium based in Europe. Hygienic engineering and design criteria for food processing equipment, with a certification scheme based on cleanability testing, widely referenced in Europe and by multinational food producers. They apply if you supply food or beverage customers in Europe or operate to a global corporate hygiene standard that references EHEDG, rather than or in addition to 3-A. The two overlap but are not interchangeable, so confirm which your customer or quality system requires before specifying one and discovering the other was needed.
Published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The bioprocessing equipment standard covers the design, materials, construction, inspection, and testing of equipment for biopharmaceutical and similar sterile process systems, including hygienic heat exchangers and the surface finishes, welds, and connections they use. It applies when the exchanger is part of a biopharmaceutical or sterile process system, or when facility standards call out BPE for process-contact equipment. BPE specifies surface finish designations, weld acceptance criteria, and fitting standards that a general industrial fabricator will not meet by default, so a supplier who builds to BPE routinely is a different supplier from one who builds to TEMA Class R.
Published by ASTM International, with ASME adopting most of them into the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code materials section under an SA or SB prefix. Specifications defining the chemistry, mechanical properties, manufacturing method, and testing of the metals used in exchanger construction, with separate documents for seamless and welded carbon steel, stainless, copper alloy, nickel alloy, and titanium tubes and for pressure vessel plate. Material test reports are issued against them. They apply to any metal exchanger because the specification number and grade on the quote determine corrosion resistance and allowable stress, not the generic material name. Ask for the specifications and grades for tubes, tubesheets, shell, and plates, and require material test reports with the shipment; a description such as "stainless steel" covers grades with very different chloride and temperature limits.
Published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Performance test codes giving uniform methods for field testing of single-phase heat exchangers (PTC 12.5, covering shell-and-tube and plate types) and air-cooled heat exchangers (PTC 30), including instrumentation, test conditions, uncertainty, and adjustment of results to design conditions. They apply when your purchase contract includes a performance guarantee and you want an agreed, published basis for verifying it after installation rather than arguing over method when the result is disputed. Naming the test code in the contract turns a thermal rating from a promise into a verifiable commitment and tells the supplier what margin and test connections to build in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Direct answers to the questions buyers ask most often when sourcing in this sector.
A shell-and-tube exchanger passes one fluid through a bundle of tubes and the other over the outside of the tubes inside a cylindrical shell, while a plate exchanger passes the two fluids through alternating channels between thin corrugated plates. The practical differences are pressure and temperature range, where shell-and-tube construction goes far higher; compactness, where plate units need a fraction of the floor space for the same duty; and cleanability, where a gasketed plate pack opens easily but a fixed tubesheet shell-and-tube unit does not. Plate exchangers also achieve closer approach temperatures in clean liquid-to-liquid service. Shell-and-tube is the default for high-pressure, phase-change, fouling fluids, and anything governed by TEMA or API, while plate construction is the default for clean liquids under moderate conditions where space and close approach matter.
For each of the two streams: the fluid and its composition, flow rate, inlet temperature, and required outlet temperature, together with the design pressure and design temperature and the maximum pressure drop you will allow. Add the fouling factor you want applied, the materials you require or those you will not accept, the applicable code and any industry standards such as TEMA class or API, the installation location and orientation, and whether the unit must be cleanable mechanically. If any stream changes phase, say so, because condensing and boiling duties are sized differently from single-phase duties. Inconsistent data is the most common cause of a delayed quote, so check that the duty calculated from one stream matches the duty calculated from the other before you send the request.
Approach temperature is the smallest temperature difference between the hot and cold streams anywhere in the exchanger, typically between the hot outlet and the cold inlet in a counterflow unit. It matters because the required surface area increases steeply as the approach decreases; as a rule of thumb, a very close approach can double the exchanger size for a modest gain in recovered heat. Plate exchangers can economically reach closer approaches than shell-and-tube units, and air-cooled units are limited by the ambient air temperature on the day. When you write a specification, decide how close an approach the process actually needs rather than copying a figure from a previous project, and ask the supplier to show what a slightly wider approach would do to the size and cost.
A fouling factor is a thermal resistance added to the design to allow for deposits that will build up in service, and it should reflect the actual fluids, velocities, and cleaning interval you expect rather than a generic value. TEMA publishes typical fouling resistances for common fluids, and many engineering firms maintain their own tables, but these are starting points rather than rules. Specifying a fouling factor that is too high produces an oversized exchanger that may foul faster as velocities fall, while a value that is too low causes the unit to drop below its rated duty sooner than you planned. State the figure explicitly on the request for quotation, ask each supplier to use the same one, and confirm the resulting clean and fouled performance both appear on the thermal rating so quotes can be compared fairly.
It depends on the design pressure, volume, fluid, and the jurisdiction in which the exchanger will be installed. Most US states and Canadian provinces adopt the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code by law and require code-stamped construction above a pressure and size threshold, and many owners and insurers require it regardless of the legal minimum. Equipment destined for the European Union follows the Pressure Equipment Directive instead, and food and pharmaceutical equipment may carry additional hygienic requirements on top of either. Confirm the requirement with the authority having jurisdiction before issuing the request for quotation, because only shops holding an ASME Certificate of Authorization can apply the stamp and the question changes who can bid.
The three letters are the TEMA designation for a shell-and-tube exchanger, describing in order the front head, the shell, and the rear head. The front head letter identifies the inlet channel construction, such as a bonnet or a removable cover. The shell letter identifies the shell-side flow arrangement, with E being the common single-pass shell. The rear head letter indicates whether the tubesheet is fixed, whether the bundle is a U-tube, or whether it has a floating head, which in turn indicates whether the bundle can be removed for cleaning. BEM describes a low-cost fixed-tubesheet unit with bonnet heads, and AES describes a removable-bundle unit with a floating rear head and a channel that can be opened without disturbing piping. The designation is a quick way to confirm a supplier has understood the cleanability and thermal expansion requirements you gave.
Choose gasketed construction when you need to open the unit for cleaning or inspection, expect to change capacity by adding plates, or handle fluids that foul, and accept that the gasket material sets the temperature and chemical limits and will need replacement over the life of the unit. Choose brazed construction for clean fluids at higher pressures where a compact, sealed, low-cost unit is acceptable, and chemical cleaning is sufficient. Choose welded construction when temperatures or fluids would destroy gaskets, but you still want the compactness and close approach of plate technology, accepting that the pack cannot be opened. In each case, confirm the plate and braze or weld materials against both fluids, because chloride content in cooling water and copper sensitivity in some process fluids are the two compatibility problems that most often surface after installation.
An air-cooled exchanger makes sense where cooling water is scarce, expensive to treat, or subject to discharge restrictions, and where the process temperature is sufficiently high above the site's design ambient air temperature to provide a workable approach. Its advantages are that it requires no water, no water treatment, and no cooling tower; its disadvantages are a larger footprint, fan power and noise, performance that varies with the weather, and an outlet temperature that cannot go below the ambient air temperature on the hottest design day. Water-cooled exchangers are more compact and can cool to lower temperatures, but they bring the cost and complexity of a water system. The decision is usually made at the plant level rather than on an exchanger-by-exchanger basis, so confirm which cooling medium your site offers before requesting quotes.
A heat sink is a passive, finned metal part that conducts heat from a component into the surrounding air, with or without a fan, and is the simplest form of electronic cooling. A cold plate is a metal plate with internal liquid passages that mounts against the component and carries heat away via a circulating coolant, used when the heat density is too high for air alone. A coolant distribution unit is the packaged system of pumps, heat exchanger, filtration, and controls that circulates the coolant and rejects its heat to a facility water or refrigerant loop. There are three levels of the same cooling chain, and they are usually bought from different kinds of suppliers: heat sinks and cold plates from thermal component specialists, and coolant distribution units from system integrators or liquid cooling equipment manufacturers.
Buyer's Guides
In-depth guides covering the decisions above.
Buyer's Guide
How to choose a heat exchanger on duty, fluids, fouling, approach temperature and access, and where shell-and-tube, plate or air-cooled is the wrong answer.
Read the guideMore coming
Additional guides are added when there is something genuinely worth saying, not on a schedule. IWS is committed to providing educational content to help you find the right suppliers!
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