SWEP EXCHANGE 2-2020

Cooling sheet metal laser cutting equipment

with SWEP All-Stainless BPHEs

The challenge in the early stages of this laser cutting case was leaking evaporators due to the corrosion of the copper brazed heat exchangers that had been provided by previous suppliers. SWEP’s All-Stainless BPHEs helped Glen Dimplex Thermal Solutions (GDTS) situated in Kalamazoo, MI, USA, overcome this major obstacle. Cooling sheet metal laser cutting equipment is the main application in this case. GDTS formed a partnership with an OEM laser cutting integrator to provide a closed-loop cooling solution for their products, with refrigeration and hydronics as the primary means of heat rejection from their process. Precise temperature control through cooling is critical in maintaining the integrity and accuracy of the cutting beam. This ensures the laser can hold extremely tight tolerances while cutting. During this process, the laser resonator, optics, and electronics generate a lot of waste heat that must be rejected in a controlled manner. The primary means of heat rejection is deionized water that travels through the laser’s cooling plates and Precise process imposes high demands on equipment

SWEP’s robust All-Stainless brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs) helped provide optimized cooling for sheet metal laser cutting equipment using deionized water as the main coolant. A copper-free chiller system was imperative to maintain the integrity of non-conductive coolants.

4 SWEP EXCHANGE