Hydronics systems? Football? While you may not hear those terms in the same breath every day, there’s actually a mind-blowing amount of design and engineering that help keep football field surfaces playable through the cold winter months.

First, some context

With this year’s big game being played in Tampa Bay, frozen ground won’t play a factor, but January's NFC championship game took place at the site of probably the most famous instance of frozen turf in history - historic Lambeau Field.

As far as stages go, professional football's championship game is one of the biggest out there, and there’s a small army responsible for making sure everything goes off without a hitch. Behind that army of personnel is an even larger assemblage of vehicles, equipment, and other technology that help along the way – one of which is the heat exchanger.

Heat exchangers of all shapes, sizes, and functions play a part in the Great American Game – from down on the field to very high above it. So, we thought it’d be fun to list some that help to make the big game everything we know and love.

There are a number of industrial processes that require extremely cold temperatures – sometimes as cold as -150°F. For the equipment used in such applications, those low temperatures pose some unique challenges. In this post, we’ll detail some of the temperatures involved and outline some things to consider with regard to heat exchanger design and materials for low-temp applications. 

Cooling data center IT equipment using air has been the industry standard for as long as there's been a data center industry. However, advances in computing technology have pushed the limits of what air-cooled systems are able to efficiently keep cool, as the amount of power needed to operate those systems increases. 

As news of the effectiveness of a handful of different COVID-19 vaccines broke over the last month or two, the nation’s attention turned to difficulties surrounding their storage and distribution in what some are calling the biggest logistical challenge in history.

Our refrigerant focus series consists of deep dives into the history, properties, suitable applications and pros and cons of some of today’s common refrigerants. This installment will focus on R-410A.

When designing a heat exchanger, an engineer should not only consider thermal performance, but also external influences that can negatively impact thermal performance, such as fouling.

In the heat transfer universe, the term ‘coil’ is typically used to describe lighter duty heat exchangers used for various HVAC-R functions across a slew of industries. However, when the pressures, temperatures, and all-around harshness of an application and installation environment are ratcheted up, this equipment commonly falls under the ‘industrial heat exchanger’ umbrella.

Gas-tungsten arc welding (GTAW), or more commonly, Tungsten Inert Gas welding (TIG), is a method of arc welding named for the non-consumable tungsten electrode used during the process. TIG welding isn’t the best option in some industries, but as coil manufacturers, it makes sense for us.

My parents were fond of saying, “There is only so much meat on the bone.” No matter how hungry we children were, there was a limit as to what meat we could get from gnawing a bone. The same is true for coils. No matter how hard we wish for more, a coil can only transfer a limited amount of heat. Why is that?