Designers and Manufactures of Fin and Tube Heat Exchangers for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Products

Evaporators

Thermocoil manufactures a standard range of Halocarbon (Freon) refrigerant Evaporators for both medium and low temperature applications. Evaporators are fitted with drip trays, and heaters are provided by default for low temp units. Capacities range from 0.5kW up to 60kW. Please download the catalogue for detailed range information. Larger capacity or application specific units can also be custom designed.  (Download Catalogue Here)

Water/Glycol Based Units

All our evaporator and condenser units can be modified for use with water or glycol as the refrigerant for use as Air Coolers and Dry Coolers respectively. Thermocoil also designs and manufactures Chilled Water, Hot Water and Steam Coils for Air Handling units and Duct Mounted Systems (see Bespoke Products below).

Condensers

Thermocoil manufactures a standard range of Halocarbon (Freon) refrigerant Condensers. Capacities range from 1kW up to 860kW based on a 15K TD. The range includes Base mounted horizontal discharge, Leg mounted vertical discharge, Floor mounted horizontal discharge packs, Wall mounted vertical discharge packs, Deck and Vee style condensers. Please download the catalogue for detailed range information. Application specific units can also be custom designed. (Download Catalogue Here)

C02 and Ammonia

Thermocoil is capable of manufacturing coils with stainless steel tubes for use in high pressure applications such as CO2 or corrosive refrigerants such as Ammonia. See Materials

Bespoke Products

Thermocoil maintains and manufactures ranges of bespoke coils and units in close collaboration with a number of clients that incorporate the coils and/or units within their product offering.  In addition we are capable of designing and manufacturing custom and unique AHU and duct coils with rapid turnarounds for customers specializing in the commercial and industrial air conditioning sector.

Process

Design and Selection

Thermocoil designs all its heat exchangers in house, usually in collaboration with the customer/end user and/or Kovco (Pty) Ltd. Our designs and coil selections are based on European standards. Our selection program (developed for us in Germany) is conservative by default giving us an automatic safety margin on performance.
Once initial designs and selections are approved, all units are modeled in 3D* from where drawings and data are fed back to the client for further approvals and directly to the factory for CNC fabrication and assembly by our skilled production staff.
*The exception to this are AHU type coils, which are drafted on the fly in real time based on selection data by our automated software. This leads to rapid design turnaround time with minimal chance for user error.

 

Fabrication

All Thermocoil’s in house parts fabrication is CNC driven, including sheet metal punching, and forming, fin punching, tube cutting, forming and expanding. Data is relayed to the CNC machinery either directly from the design office or programmed at the machine by experienced operators, based on detailed works orders.

Welding and Testing

All brazing and tube welding is carried out under internal inert gas conditions.  Each brazing stage has internal check and sign-offs. The final brazing/welding stage, once the coil circuits are completed and closed is the testing stage where coils are pressure tested in a test tank. Test pressures range from 30Bar for standard water and refrigerant coils, to 45 Bar for high pressure refrigerants (eg R410A) and 120 Bar for C02 type applications. We can pressure test hydraulically to many hundreds of Bar for special circumstances.




Assembly

Coils are only assembled into complete units after testing. Standard ranges and custom units are only assembled using stainless steel rivets and and with our sheet metal fabricated and powder coated in house. Thermocoil wires evaporator fans and heaters to electric boxes, as well as AC and EC fans to end user specs on the larger Condensing units. All units’ holding charges are re- tested prior to packaging or crating ready for dispatch.

Materials

Tube

The majority of our products use Copper tube, either smooth bore or inner grooved (rifle bore) tube imported from Germany. Diameters and wall thicknesses (WT) of the tubes vary depending on the application and size of unit, ranging from Dia 3/8” (0.3 - 0.6mm WT), to Dia 12mm (0.35 - 1.0mm WT) and Dia 5/8” (0.4 - 0.7mm WT).
We also use Stainless Steel tube in diameter 12mm or 5/8” (both 0.5m WT) for high pressure or corrosive, or ultra-hygienic environments.

Fin

Most products use 8006 alloy aluminuim fin. Thickness varies from 0.12mm to 0.35mm depending on the application, fin spacing, unit size, etc. The aluminium fin can be ordered plain, or with a hydrophilic coating, or with heavier duty third party anti-corrosion treatments.  
For more industrial type environments (especially inlcuding ammonia) ALMg3 alloy fin may used with units with the larger 5/8” tubes.
Copper fin is also available for all tube sizes for more corrosive environments and is recommended for coastal installations.

Sheetmetal / Casings

All sheetmetal used in Thermocoil units is either Galvanised Mild Steel, Aluminium (AlMg3) or Stainless Steel (typically 304 or 316).
Galvanised and Aluminium external sheetmetal parts are generally powder coated. Standard colours are Gloss White, and on some of the standard condenser rages, Azure Blue (RAL 5009). Other colours are available on request. Thermocoil carries out all its own powder coating under strict quality controlled processes.

Fans

Thermocoil uses EBM Pabst or Ziehl-Abegg fans on all its standard units. Fans are typically basket axials, can be 220V or 380V, and AC or EC type fans. In addition, for custom units, plate axial, centrifugal,  and short or long case axial fans are available.