Plate-Fin Oil Cooler

Lytron frequently receives questions through its “Ask an Engineer” website form. A customer recently asked us the following question: “What custom heat exchanger technologies do you recommend for cooling oil?”

There are two heat exchanger technologies that we typically use for custom oil coolers: flat tube and plate-fin. Both are vacuum-brazed and high performance. If flat tube will meet your thermal and mechanical requirements, we will generally recommend it over plate-fin because flat tube typically costs less to manufacture.

Curved Flat Tube Heat Exchanger

In addition, our flat tube can be bent into a 3⁄8˝ (3 mm) inside radius without buckling, allowing us to manufacture a flat tube heat exchanger into a curved shape if necessary.

Tube-fin heat exchangers are also an option for cooling oil, but their performance is not as high as flat-tube or plate-fin heat exchangers.

For applications requiring the highest performance and the lightest weight, we will generally recommend plate-fin heat exchangers over flat tube heat exchangers. The majority of military and aerospace oil coolers being designed today use plate-fin technology. Shown in the image to the left is a liquid-to-liquid plate-fin oil cooler designed for a commercial airplane.

BigDog image provided courtesy of Boston Dynamics ©2009

In the Boston Sunday Globe[1] newspaper this week, there was an article featuring the Boston Dynamics BigDog. The BigDog is a 240 lb (109 kg), 3 ft (0.9 m) long robot designed to carry loads up to 340 lbs (154 kg), run up to 4 miles/hr (6.4 km/hr), and even climb hills. Last week, Boston Dynamics announced it had landed a $32 million grant from the U.S. Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the next generation of BigDog for use by U.S. Marines. On the front of the BigDog is a flat tube heat exchanger to keep the BigDog from overheating. Flat tube heat exchangers typically cool oil or hydraulic fluid or electronics. Apparently the BigDog has been spotted in a park just down the road in Waltham, Massachusetts! You can watch videos of the very popular BigDog on YouTube.com.

Read the article or see custom military heat exchangers.

BigDog and Heat Exchanger - BigDog image provided courtesy of Boston Dynamics ©2009

BigDog in Snow - BigDog image provided courtesy of Boston Dynamics ©2009

Lytron Heat Exchanger