What Are The Advantages Of Using Engineered Plastic
Jun 05, 2024
Life expectancy - A standard metal cooling tower has casings with thin sheets of galvanized steel. These sheets usually have welded seams that can deteriorate within a year and will require re-welding, patching, or coating to prevent leakage. Additionally, the treated water tends to attack the galvanized metal, essentially wearing it out in an extraordinarily short time. Environmental conditions such as sunlight, pollution, salt air, and harsh process chemicals also contribute to galvanized steel's early demise. Even ambient air pollution can affect galvanized steel, leading to premature failure. Since metal expands and contracts, depending on the temperature, repeated cycling causes stress that can also accelerate corrosion, rust, and leakage. Even low-grade stainless shell options, series 300 stainless steel, are attacked and worn out against water treatment chemicals and environmental factors.
Flexible modular design - In the past, a plastic cooling tower was too small for many industrial processes. For that reason, galvanized metal cooling towers were traditionally used for most applications above 250 tons but that situation has changed dramatically. Delta, for instance, has introduced its TM Series® of factory-assembled plastic towers that can be combined to provide up to 2,500 cooling tons in a single, modularized unit. Modular cooling towers also facilitate the use of an extra margin of cooling capacity that can be advantageous in adjusting to operational heat load or outflow changes, or in upgrading to meet future cooling requirements.
Continuous, more economical operation - Engineered plastic can also reduce the expected and inconvenient consequences of operating a cooling tower, which include: electric power usage, water-treatment chemicals, labor and materials for maintenance, and unscheduled process downtime for cooling tower repairs. Maintenance and repairs usually mean process interruptions, the costliest of all problems related to cooling towers.
Easier installation - The basic design advantages of the latest plastic cooling towers also include easier installation, especially on rooftops, because a lightweight plastic shell weighs as much as 40% less than a steel tower while being 5-10 times thicker. When modular cooling towers are combined in a cluster, installation is often faster and easier.
