Heat exchanger plate for a desalination retrofit

The plant had been running duplex stainless bundles and lost two of them to chloride pitting inside four years. The retrofit specified commercially pure titanium, which does not pit in seawater at any temperature the plant reaches.

Forming was the hard part

The bundles needed tight-radius formed plate, and titanium springs back more than the steel the fabricator was used to. We supplied test coupons from the production heats so the fabricator could set up their press before the plate arrived, which took a week out of the schedule and avoided scrapping material.

What the customer measured

Weld repair rate stayed under one percent across four bundles — the number that decides whether a titanium retrofit pays for itself.