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Quotes - Engineering - SalesTank-Mounted and Immersion U-Tube Bundles
Heating Inside the Vessel
An immersion bundle is a U-tube assembly on a mounting flange that bolts to a tank nozzle or manway. Steam or hot oil runs through the tubes; the tank contents are the shell side. There is no shell, because the tank is the shell.
Whole-tank heating. A bundle sized to raise the entire contents, used where the whole inventory needs to be at temperature. Slow, simple and effective, and the usual approach on asphalt, heavy fuel oil and tallow storage.
Suction heating. A smaller bundle located at the pump suction, conditioning only the volume about to leave the tank. Far less energy than heating everything, and the right answer when the product only needs to be pumpable rather than uniformly hot.
Practical detail. The bundle is cantilevered from its flange, so support and vibration matter. Removal means pulling it back out through the same opening, which sets a clearance requirement outside the tank equal to the bundle length.
Typical Construction
- Construction: U-tube bundle on a mounting flange
- Mounting: ANSI flange, tank nozzle or manway
- Shell side: The tank contents
- Heating medium: Steam, hot oil or hot water in the tubes
- Whole-tank duty: Bundle sized to raise total contents
- Suction duty: Bundle sized for the pumped volume only
- Finned option: Available where the tank-side coefficient is poor
- Support: Cantilevered from the flange; internal support where required
- Removal clearance: Bundle length clear outside the tank opening
- Codes: ASME Section VIII for the tube side
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Suction Heating Is Usually the Better Economics
Heating an entire tank of heavy product so that a fraction of it can be pumped is expensive and slow. A suction heater conditions only the material entering the pump, which cuts energy use sharply and shortens the time between deciding to pump and being able to.
The trade is that the bulk stays cold, so anything requiring uniform temperature throughout still needs whole-tank heating. Tell us which problem you are solving and the sizing follows.
