The Taganrog Boiler-Making Works «Krasny Kotelshchik» has extensive experience and successful track record in designing, researching and manufacturing high and low pressure heat exchange equipment.
The production volume of heat exchanger equipment and water treatment equipment at «Krasny Kotelshchik» represents up to 25% of the total production volume. Heat exchange and water treatment equipment are successfully operated at all the thermal electric power plants in Russia and abroad.
Low pressure heaters are designed for regenerative heating of district water in the regeneration systems of the steam turbines by cooling and condensing steam, picked up from intermediate stages of the turbine units. High pressure heaters are designed to heat boiler district water by cooling and condensing the steam entering the high pressure heater from unregulated turbine inlets.
Today, «Krasny Kotelshchik» is the absolute leader in manufacture of manifold and helix high pressure design heaters including their modern modifications, which have higher thermal efficiency (with heat exchanging surface of small diameter pipes). In its segment, this equipment is beyond competition in the markets of Russia and the CIS countries in terms of the value for money ratio. Design of these units, due to their high serviceability, allows their operating efficiency to be retained throughout their entire life span.
The heat exchanger equipment for NPPs, in terms of its functional purpose and design, is similar to the heat exchanger equipment for thermal electric power plants. The difference lies in more stringent requirements applicable to design and workmanship.
A salient feature of the district water heaters (DWH) of TKZ design is the fact that the district water chamber has been designed without anchor ties with a thickened tube array. This solution simplifies disassembly and assembly of heaters when heat exchanger tubes are cleaned periodically from deposits. The thickened tube array has high rigidity, which rules out the possibility of district water flowing between the chamber baffles and the tube array.
«Krasny Kotelshchik» is the manufacturer of virtually all the high and low pressure heaters on the current operating power generating units of NPPs in Russia and the near abroad countries. Over the entire period of the heaters’ operation, the company’s technicians, design copyrights holders, have been supervising operation of the equipment, have been implementing action plans aimed at improving its operation. In particular, «Krasny Kotelshchik» has been doing work with the aim of upgrading low pressure heaters, type PN-1200 and PN-3000 (for units with reactor unit WWER-1000), PN-950 and PN-1800 (for units with turbine unit RBMK-1000) which were manufactured during the 1970-s-1980-s.
PN-1200 and PN-3000 are upgraded by replacing tube systems. At the same time, in the modern design of the tube system, hole layout has been changed, other elements of the bodywork bearing structure have been used, which has enabled heat exchanger filling capacity to increase and, hence, has enabled heat exchanger surface to increase, too. The lower part of the heater tubular system has been designed in such a way as to perform the function of a built-in condensate cooler.
In keeping with the measures worked out based on the results of operating PN-1200, PN-3000 during the 1980-s, the air suction device has been modernized. Measures have been carried out in order to reduce variations in the condensate level in the heater housing and hydraulic shocks have been eliminated in the output “turned over” hydraulic lock, whose design has also been upgraded. In the upgrade of PN-950 and PN-1800, the heater housing is replaced with corrosion and erosion resistant steel housing.