Even more compact, Combined C

Valtteri Haavisto, Customer Service Director at Vahterus

The Vahterus combined evaporator has been on the market for several years and has been used in various refrigeration systems all around the world. Its original design has been a great success.

The evaporator combines an effective flooded evaporator and a droplet separator in one shell. This system eliminates the need for an external droplet separation drum, thus saving on piping work, insulation requirements and room height.

Vahterus is always actively developing products for refrigeration markets. We have collected information from users and contractors in order to further improve the combined evaporator. This has allowed us to develop our second-generation combined evaporator – Combined C – which will fulfil increasing customer demand for even more compact refrigeration packages.

The Combined C will have an ammonia suction connection on the endplate of the shell. The connection size will be matched to the shell size of the unit. For example, a size 7 shell will always have a DN150 ammonia suction pipe. Another innovation is the location of the ammonia injection close to the outer shell.

The top of the shell is designed so that it will remain free from any connections. This will enable the positioning of other components such as a condenser on top of the evaporator, with only a small space for insulation required between the units.

The new Combined C has been designed and tested by Vahterus’s Research & Development team. Designer Reima Viinikkala was responsible for the intelligent separation system while Engineer Kerttu Kupiainen did the test work with her team in the laboratory. As ever, these tests gave rise to new development ideas and thoughts for the future.

Vahterus has not only updated the combined shell sizes, but has also responded to requests from the markets to enable higher ammonia volume fluctuation in the combined units. Our updated, larger combined shell sizes make this higher fluctuation possible, an especially important feature with air-cooled condensers, which can collect ammonia liquid when the ambient temperature is cold, but are unable to retain liquid when ambient temperatures are high.

The larger shell of the 1,000kW water chiller will have 2.5 times higher fluctuation capacity than the standard size combined shell. Further technical details are available from Vahterus sales team. Please see the contact details for our experts in the chemical and process, energy and refrigeration industries at vahterus.com