Metal finishing Q&As since 1989
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Cooling system for alkaline zinc plating solutions
March 2, 2012
Q. Hi,
I own a plating shop, I was working 24 hours straight 2 weeks ago, but the temperature of the baths rose and now I'm having problems with the quality. I'd like to know what is the best option to decrease the temperature. Some people use cooling tower and chilling. But I don't know now if pumping the solution to the cooling tower and the return the solution to the original tank will contaminate my solution.
Manager - Colombia
March 2, 2012
Hi, Francisco.
You cannot use a cooling tower because it will contaminate the solution and you could poison birds, but you can use an "evaporative condenser". This looks like a cooling tower except that it actually has two circuits: the water circuit plus the closed circuit. It's kind of a heat exchanger and cooling tower in one piece.
However, it depends on the temperature you have to hold. You are unlikely to be able to hold less than approximately ambient temperature with this system (there are calculations based on wet bulb temperature and delta T). If you need to hold substantially below ambient temperature, you will need a chiller (similar to an air conditioner).
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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