Forced Draft Air Cooler & Heat Exchangers

Your process requirements are unique – shouldn’t your air-cooled heat exchanger be unique too?

We don’t build catalogue air-cooled heat exchangers, we build your coolers to your specifications. 100% custom engineered and fabricated to meet your specifications and local requirements. No compromises.

Altex Industries offers complete new air-cooled heat exchanger design and fabrication per ASME VIII-1 and API 661. Recirculation (winterization) is available as needed.

About Winterization

Economy of scale – we build big! Given our Edmonton location and immediate access to the high-load corridor in Alberta, we maximize bay size and minimize bay quantity. We can also combine multiple services into a shared bay. This equates to lower capital and operating costs.

Engineering, design, project management, fabrication, assembly, and testing – everything is performed in-house at Altex Industries at our Edmonton facility.

Various accessories can be added to our air coolers for air cooled exchangers:

Space Heaters – electric or gas
Heating coils – glycol or steam
Louvers - manual and/or automatic
Bug (poplar fluff) screens, hail guards
Anti-rotation devices (Anti-windmilling)
Vibration switches or sensors

Header access walkways and ladders
Averaging RTD, thermo-couples
Temperature indicating transmitters
Floors - Grated or checker-plate
Low-noise fan design
Shipping prep – nitrogen purge, plywood covers, poly-wrap
Other accessories upon request

Do you have a challenging application?

We offer solutions for:

High-pressure designs
Low noise requirements (near developments)
Pressure-drop limitations (natural gas compressor stations)
Air cooled heat exchangers
Forced draft air cooler
Fin fan coolers

In-House Engineering Software:

Design and Construction:

ASME U, S, R, NB certified
Canadian CRNs
HTRI design in-house by our thermal engineering team
Plug or cover-plate header-boxes
Split headers, sloped headers
L-Fin, embedded, or extruded fin-tubes for fin fan air cooler

Materials of Construction:

Carbon Steel - SA-214, SA-179, SA-192, etc.
Chrome-Moly - 1/2-Cr, 1-1/4Cr, 2-1/4Cr, 5Cr, 9Cr, 13Cr
Stainless Steel - 304, 309, 316, 317, 321, 400 series, etc.
Duplex - S32205, S31803
Super Duplex - S32750, S32760
Nickel alloys - Incoloy®, Hastelloy®, Inconel®, C-276, C-22, N06625, N08825, Alloy 59, C2000, etc.
Clad or overlayed tubesheets with above metallurgies
Clad or overlayed tubesheets with above metallurgies

Industries Served:

Natural Gas Processing
Oil and Gas Transmission
Petrochemical
Refining
Power Generation
Geothermal
LNG
Heavy Oil
Shale Gas and Oil Production
Gas Compression

Air-Cooler / Fin-Fan FAQ's

Can we maintain the existing piping dimensions for replacement Air-cooler tube bundles?

Yes, always. We not only match the existing bundle dimensions for in-kind replacements but also maintain the same overall dimensions for upgraded designs. When customers want better performance or higher duty to meet their new process, we offer new bundle designs with 1 to 3 additional rows of tubes without needing any piping modifications in the field.

Are different fin types used based on heat transfer/surface area calculations?

No, the fin selection is based on the process/operating temperatures. L-fins are the most common and economical option. For temperatures ranging from 270° F to 750°F, Embedded, Extruded fins are offered.

When do I need Winterization/freeze protection?

Process fluids with water, or gases with Hydrate formation possibility, or High viscous/high pour point fluids need Warm air-recirculation system.

Do I need heaters to operate warm air re-circulation system?

No, Warm air that exits from top of the bundle is re-circulated within the bundle. Emergency heaters are used for winter start-ups/shutdowns as back-up. When there is No Glycol supply at the plant, Electric heaters are used but they consume lot of electricity.