Heat exchanger tubes are manufactured by combining different alloy inner tubes with various fin materials in a vast range of applications to effectively heat or cool down liquids, gasses, oils or air.

Many factors contribute to the type of materials required to effectively create an application specific heat exchanger. Ambient temperature, inner and outer tube surface temperatures, type of matter used inside and outside of tubes, maximum pressure capabilities and size of heat exchanger.

Most common heat exchangers would be a tube and shell type used in most process industries. High electricity costs is a main factor around the world in these plants. A plain tube heat exchanger versus a finned tube heat exchanger demonstrates the advantage of using finned tubes over plain tubes. In comparison one can half the amount of heat exchangers used, if they are finned tube ones. In large industries this will reduce input cost of electricity, but also maintenance cost.

Further advancement in the field of heat exchange would be the use of economizers in large boiler applications. The pre-heating of water to steam applications prior to entering the boiler, by using an economizer creates much efficiency by saving energy needed to boil water. Much larger inner diameter tubes are used to ensure sufficient flow of water through the much smaller economizer into the boiler.

With the ever-changing world of heat exchange, energy efficiency is coming to the forefront of critical requirement constantly. The capturing of heat from one part of a plant to be utilized in another, through heat exchange becomes more critical daily