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Quotes - Engineering - SalesThe fields we price a dairy exchanger from
A dairy exchanger is priced from nine facts about the job, and every one of them changes the construction, the heat transfer area or the paperwork. Leave one out and the quote either carries a safety margin you pay for or waits on a phone call. The list below is the one our sales engineers work from; the article after it explains what each field does to the number.
Construction first, size second
Order matters less than completeness, but the first three fields decide the construction. Product, fat and solids, and particulates together tell us whether this is a gasketed plate, a wide-gap plate or a tubular job. Get those wrong and everything priced after them is priced on the wrong machine.
The next four set the size: flow, the product temperatures, the utility with its temperatures, and the regeneration decision. The last two, 3-A / PMO status and scope, settle the documentation and what physically ships.
The nine fields, grouped
- Product, with its fat percent and total solids
- Particulates: none, fines, pulp or pieces, with the largest size
- Flow in lb/h or gal/h, normal and maximum
- Product inlet and outlet temperatures for each section
- Utility, with its supply and return temperatures
- Regeneration wanted, or once-through
- 3-A / PMO status, and complete unit, plate pack or tube bundle
usual chilled-water approach on platePlan the milk outlet 2–4°F above the chilled water measured at the exchanger; ask for colder and the plates multiply while the outlet still misses.
Why each field moves the price
Some fields change the size of the exchanger, some change its type, and a few change only the paperwork. This is how each one lands on the quote.
- Product and fat: cream above about 30 percent fat thickens sharply when cold and pushes the job to wide-gap plate
- Particulates: fruit pieces or broken curd rule out a standard 3–5 mm plate channel altogether
- Flow: sets the frame size, port size and how many channels run in parallel
- Temperatures: the rise or drop times the flow is the duty every plate is counted against
- Utility: a closer approach means more area, and glycol runs a wider approach than chilled water
- Regeneration: each extra point of recovery adds plates to the milk-to-milk section
- 3-A, PMO and scope: documentation, finish, the double-wall decision and what goes on the truck
Call and talk it through with an engineer: 1-805-484-2992
Working through the checklist
Product comes first because it names the construction. Skim, whole and 2 percent milk run happily in a gasketed plate with a 3–5 mm gap. Cream at 36–40 percent fat and ice cream mix need the wider channel of a wide-gap plate, while condensed product and anything carrying pieces go tubular. Give fat and total solids as numbers, not product names: 'cream' covers everything from 18 percent coffee cream to 40 percent heavy cream, and those are different exchangers. The full rule is set out under plate, wide-gap or tube.
Flow and temperatures together give the duty. Convert gallons at 8.6 lb per gallon for milk. Cooling 10,000 lb/h of milk from 100°F to 40°F is about 560,000 BTU/h at a specific heat near 0.93; shift either temperature by five degrees and the duty moves by roughly 8 percent. Give the maximum flow the line will ever see as well as the normal one, because frame and ports are sized on the maximum.
The utility sets the approach, and the approach sets the area. On a balanced counterflow section, halving the approach from 4°F to 2°F roughly doubles the plates needed. That is why we ask for the supply temperature you actually have at the exchanger in August, not the design figure on the chiller. A plate cooler on chilled water usually runs a 2–4°F approach; on propylene glycol, 5–8°F.
Regeneration is a choice with a price on both sides. A 90 percent regenerator cuts heating and cooling load hard but adds a long milk-to-milk section, and on a Grade A line it brings the 1 psi pressure-differential rule with it. Once-through is cheaper to buy and costlier to run. Tell us which you want, or ask us to price both.
The last two fields cover paperwork and freight. A 3-A unit carries design and finish requirements and the documents an inspector will ask to see; a food-grade unit on a manufacturing-grade line may not need them. A new plate pack for a frame you own is a different quote from a complete exchanger, which is why scope is on the list at all.
Fat percent and total solids as numbers, never just a product name
A request that carries all nine fields is usually priced without a single follow-up call.
Request a QuoteQuote questions
The frame, ports and plate count are set by the highest flow the exchanger must handle at the required outlet temperature. If the line runs 30 percent above normal during peak season and the quote was built on the normal figure, the outlet drifts warm exactly when it matters. Give both numbers; we size on the maximum and check pressure drop at both.
The temperature measured at the exchanger inlet on the warmest day of the year, not the setpoint at the chiller. Long headers and shared loads add a degree or two, and that matters when the approach is only a few degrees. If you have a trend log, send the worst week; if not, tell us how far the exchanger sits from the chiller.
It helps. CIP temperature and chemistry decide the elastomer as much as the product does, and a hot caustic wash narrows the choice. If the plant brushes tubes by hand, or wants to, that points toward a straight-tube design. Add a line on how and how often the unit is cleaned and the quote will reflect it.
Say what is in the stream and how big the largest piece is. Fines from cheese milk, fruit pulp in a blended yogurt and whole fruit pieces are three different answers: the first may still suit a plate, the second usually wants a corrugated or multi-tube unit, and the third needs a single-tube bore sized to pass the piece without damaging it.
Send the formulation in broad terms: fat, total solids, sweetener, stabilizer and any inclusions, plus how it behaves cold. A lab viscosity at two temperatures is ideal. Without it we size on the nearest known product and say so on the quote, which leaves room to confirm the construction once a trial batch has run.
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