The manufacture of chemicals, petrochemicals, and oil & gas derivatives can expose processing equipment to highly corrosive fluids. Careful analysis of fluids, pressures, processes and manufacturing temperatures have shown Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers can be highly corrosion resistant in many of these extremely harsh environments.

When these aggressive fluids come into contact with interior surfaces of the process equipment, proper consideration must be given to the effects of the chemistry on the material of construction. When this occurs, repair and/or replacement of equipment will be needed, causing unwanted costly and disruptive downtime of the process line.

A Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchanger from TITAN Metal Fabricators is extremely effective against to localized corrosion, cracking, and stress corrosion. Specification of Duplex Stainless Steel as the material of construction offers a long-term and cost-effective method of preventing damaging corrosion and eliminating subsequent leaks to the process during manufacture.

Life Cycle Benefits of Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers

Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers are highly cost-effective over the entire life cycle of the equipment. Properly maintained, they can operate for decades, making them a very economical choice.

Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers can:

  • Provide an extended service life compared to other materials of construction
  • Eliminate expensive downtime due to equipment failure
  • Do away with requirement for spare parts inventory
  • Provide superior corrosion resistance
  • Deliver high heat transfer efficiency
  • Accommodate high steam pressure to reduce required surface area
  • Eliminate breakage during handling, installation and operation due to fully-welded metal construction

Duplex Stainless Steel the Metal

Duplex Stainless Steel offers excellent resistant to corrosion along with very high mechanical strength. With this high corrosion resistance, it provides more uptime than Carbon Steel or Conventional 300 Series Stainless Steels. The mechanical strength of Duplex Stainless Steel allows for lighter fabrication, more compact design and less welding.

The superior performance of Duplex Stainless Steel is due to the combination of austenitic and ferrite alloys in its microstructure allowing achievement of both strength and high corrosion resistance.  These characteristics have led to acceptance and growth of their use in Heat Exchangers, Piping Systems and other process equipment in sulfuric acid processing as well as the production of urea and other fertilizers.

However, it should be noted that due to the importance of the proportions of austenitic and ferrite alloys, Duplex Stainless Steels require considerably more care in welding preparation and fabrication procedures than 300 Series Stainless Steels.  Inexperience or less than vigilant attention to these practices can contaminate the weld, rendering the fabrication compromised in strength and corrosion-resistance.

Compared with nickel alloys, Duplex Stainless Steel is a reliable and less costly material of construction offering high strength even in highly demanding applications.

Please see Applications of Duplex Stainless Steel for a more in depth look at additional uses for Duplex Stainless Steel that include some comparative corrosion resistance data, media, concentrations and temperatures.

Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchanger Designs

TITAN offers a full range of TEMA-type Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers. Utilizing both HTRI and AspenTech thermal design software, we can custom design a Heat Exchanger to fit your application. TITAN’s heat exchanger designs take advantage of loose-lined, solid, and explosive clad tubesheet options based on the mechanical demands of the application.

TITAN manufactures pressure equipment in accordance with all major international design standards and pressure vessel codes.

Manufacturing capacities include diameters up to 120″ diameter, 300’ in length and weights up to 200 tons.

Duplex Stainless Steel Corrosion Resistance

Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers are suitable for applications in the chemical processing, pharmaceutical, agricultural, food, petrochemical, and power industries. They are very well suited to processes using salts, acids and other chemicals which can be damaging to lesser materials.

TITAN Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers are used in a wide variety of environments. To view a list of materials where Duplex Stainless Steel is commonly used, please visit Applications of Duplex Stainless Steel.

For a general guide on corrosion resistance, temperatures and concentrations please see TITAN’s publication “Corrosion Resistance of Metals in Various Chemical Media” for additional information.*

*Note: Final selection of material must be based on actual evaluation of the metal in the corrosive medium.

 Duplex Stainless Steel Fabrications

In addition to Duplex Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers, TITAN regularly designs, engineers and fabricates the following types of Titanium custom process equipment:

  • Duplex Stainless Steel Columns and Towers
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Condensers
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Pipe
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Pressure Vessels
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Reactors
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Spargers
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Tanks

Contact us by phone if you have need for unique Duplex Stainless Steel equipment at (805) 487-5050 or toll-free (877) 487-5050 or email info@titanmf.com. Our experts can also let you know if a different reactive alloy might be a better fit for your application.