Client’s Story # 1

TRANTER’s asymmetrical heat transfer plates are used, among other things, to produce “deep” plate heat exchangers.

One of their advantages is the average net free passage width of 3.3mm, as opposed to 2-2.5mm in competitor’s plates.

We, like most serious manufacturers in the world, have two models:

3-4mm “deep” plates for free passage of contaminated flows – and “shallow” plates – 2.5mm or less free passage, suitable for closed and clean circuits.

Although this can be proved by physical formulas, you don’t have to be a genius engineer to understand it. It is clear to all that plates with wider free passage will be less clogged than plates with narrow passages. The “shallow” plates are cheaper because their production process is shorter and the production molds are cheaper.

However, when we deal with bids and tenders, we see over and over again that there are competitors whose commercial-winning considerations overcome all other considerations.

As a result, their commitment to providing the Client with a quality product that fits the application requirements becomes secondary.

Of course, these suppliers also shake-off and elude any responsibility for reducing the Client’s total cost-ownership over the system’s total lifespan.

Unfortunately, Clients can fall for this trap quite easily.

In such cases, it is clear to us that the Client will later pay many times over the costs saved in the purchase of heat exchangers, for cleaning and maintenance expenses and for insane electricity bills.

In a tender, in which we have participated, for the supply and installation of three heat exchangers for residual heat rejection from the air conditioning system to the cooling towers, in one of the most prestigious residential towers in the country– we have lost.

We have pre-warned the contractor in charge for the purchase, that the cooling towers are prone to fouling and for the price comparison with our competitors, the design and price of “deep” should be taken into account, not “shallow” plates.

We will forever staunchly stand-in for the Client’s position of interest, and in no way offer him “shallow” plates, if, in our best professional judgment, the system requires “deep” plates.

Unfortunately, short-term considerations and the “it will be fine” cliché eventually played the upper hand in the contractor’s decision to purchase “shallow” plate heat exchangers.

Three years later, with the building’s full occupancy, while the said contractor is still in its warranty period, the building’s maintenance manager complained that the heat exchangers were clogged and had to be cleaned every few months – an evidently extremely unlikely frequency.

The bottom line…

In the absence of an adequate response to the problem from the heat exchanger’s supplier, the developer decided to demand of the contractor to replace the heat exchangers with the model, quote: “as required in the tender in the Krashin-Shalev advice specifications or equivalent”. That is, TRANTER’s asymmetrical plate heat exchangers with wide free passage and enhanced self-cleaning capability.

After having words, and under the threat of forfeiture of purchase guarantees, the contractor surrendered to the demand.

Initially the contractor replaced one heat exchanger out of the three.

In its place a new heat exchanger of our own was installed for trial and on the contractor’s expense. The trial was successful and in the following year two remaining narrow-gap plates heat exchangers were dismantled and new ones of our production were installed.

What is the state of the “deep” plate heat exchangers that we have provided, after over ten years now?

We have not yet even opened once for cleaning and we have not provided any spare parts for this project, which are always needed with some heat exchangers’ openings/closures.

A heat exchanger, which gradually clogs over time, until it is completely blocked, turns into expenses “gobbler”:

1. Cleaning and spare parts expenses are otherwise totally superfluous;
2. Many times over increase in water pumping expenses – waste of money can amount to tens of thousands of Shekels per year;
3. A dramatic increase in the power consumption of the central air conditioning system. Loss of 1°C of the heat exchanger’s temperature, harms the air conditioning system’s effectiveness by 3%.

All the above could amount to losses of hundreds of thousands of NIS per year.

In this case, the corrective action of the developer who persisted on the use of heat exchangers suitable for the application, significantly reduced the damage. The suffering and damage he sustained amounted to “just” redundant losses of cleaning and parts expenses, loss of valuable management time and aggravation and anguish suffered by him and the luxurious tower’s tenants.

The contractor bore the costs of dismantling the heat exchangers unsuitable for the application, thrashing or storing them for days to come, purchasing new heat exchangers at the higher price, losing valuable management time, aggravation and anguish, and most importantly – a huge damage to his reputation.

Ignoring our professional advice and experience has cost him dearly and uncalled for.