Heat Exchanger World magazine April 2024 | Page 8

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Cover Story

HRS Heat Exchangers : Experts in difficult heat trans

HRS Heat Exchangers are global pioneers of thermal technology , offering unique and innovative heat transfer solutions since 1981 . Their expertise supports energy efficiency in the environmental , food and beverage , and numerous other sectors . Heat Exchanger World had the pleasure of speaking with Mr Arnold Kleijn , European Sales Director , and Mr Matt Hale , Global Key Account Director , at
HRS Heat Exchangers , about their cutting-edge scraped surface heat exchanger range and focus on the renewables market .
Unicus Scraped Surface Heat Exchangers installed in a meat processing skid .
By Iryna Mukha , Heat Exchanger World
Company origins Founded in 1981 , the HRS Group develops several categories of heat exchangers and other supporting heat transfer products that are used in energy industries , food manufacturing , chemical and automotive sectors , and more . While all manufacturing is carried out in Spain and India , the company ’ s extensive global presence is supported by technical design and sales offices in the UK , Canada , USA , Malaysia , Australia , and New Zealand . After firmly establishing themselves as a reliable heat exchanger supplier , in 2021 HRS was bought by Exchanger Industries Limited , a Canadian market leader in heat transfer technology serving mainly the oil and gas sector . HRS Heat Exchangers remains largely focused on the food and beverage sector : “ The origins of the company in Spain , where we started manufacturing , are really in the food industry ,” begins Arnold Kleijn , “ and that ’ s largely due to our location in the southeast of Spain . We ’ re surrounded by fruits , vegetables , and food processing companies . It was the logical place for us to start .” However , in 2008 , amid the financial crisis , the food industry experienced a downturn , so HRS had to adjust to the changing market demands . Since one of the company ’ s strengths was in providing solutions for high viscosity materials and fouling , they rediscovered their purpose in the environmental industry . “ We are a shell and tube heat exchanger manufacturer , but our focus areas are always the high viscosities and difficult to handle fluids – the things that some people don ’ t like dealing with are what we tend to deal with quite a lot ,” says Matt Hale . Today , owing to the company ’ s innovative scraped surface heat exchangers , the food and environmental sectors make up approximately 80 % of the company ’ s turnover .
Birth of the Unicus series When HRS started working with the food industry in the 1990s , they received a lot of enquiries from clients who dealt with high-viscosity materials . As Arnold notes : “ If the product is highly viscous , then the normal shell and tube heat exchangers won ’ t do the job .” Although other companies make scraped heat exchangers , they were very limited in the heat transfer area . In order to fill this gap in the market , HRS started the development
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