The charge air cooler (or scavenge air intercooler) is located between the turbo charger and the engine scavenge air inlet manifold. The purpose of the charge air cooler is to reduce the air inlet temperature thereby increasing air density thus giving an increase in engine efficiency.

Typically, large volumes of charge air from the turbo charger needs cooling from 200C to 45C before entering the scavenge manifold. Whilst high thermal performance and low pressure drop are essential, the construction is equally critical as it must be very robust in order to withstand the very high air velocities. Seawater and fresh water are usually used as a cooling medium and high quality materials are needed to ensure a long serviceable life.

Leaking or damaged charge air coolers can cause loss of power, increased emissions, increased fuel consumption and increased exhaust temperatures leading to excessive engine wear/damage. The condition of the air cooler is therefore essential to ensure efficient performance of any turbo charged diesel engine.

We are aware of the difficulties in today’s cost conscious markets and so we offer additional options that can offer huge savings to match your budget. At AMI, we recognise the difficulties facing our clients, and have responded by offering a range of options to ensure low costs. We offer Carbon Steel tube plates over Naval Brass (where applications allow), refurbishment and cleaning of units as well as re-using refurbished parts when requested on top of offering scrappage allowances against old coolers to offset the costs of a replacement unit.

Performance

Due to the range of fin types available to us, we always have a fin option that will allow us to build an air cooler that has thermal specifications equal to or better than the original unit. Occasionally, clients are unhappy with the original air cooler performance and in these circumstances we can offer to build a new cooler with improved efficiency or reduced pressure drop. The dimensions of the air cooler can be obtained from our extensive database of drawings, surveys on-board or from samples sent to our workshops. We manufacture air coolers using high quality materials. We buy these materials in bulk direct from European suppliers. This enables us to better control the quality of materials. Our quality procedure includes full trace-ability of material and workmanship. The air cooler is checked at various stages of production ensuring quality throughout all areas of manufacture.

Compliance

The NOx emissions of your engine are effected by the condition of the charge air cooler. Vessels now need to prove that the air cooler manufacturer has offered a cooler with the same performance as the original. Our fin types have been tested at independent test facilities and results used within our complex thermal design software. If we are supplied with the original thermal data, we can offer accurate thermal specifications of our cooler to satisfy the NOx regulations.

Need class approval too? No problem, we can work with all major class societies to certify our coolers if this documentation is required.

Support

We can manufacture or service charge air coolers for a huge range of models of engines including Wartsila, Sulzer, MAN, MAK, Mitsui, Daihatsu, Jenbacher, Caterpillar, Cegielski, Pielstick and Yanmar.

Cooler ranges we support also include: Vestas, Astra-Refrigeranti, DongHwa, Doosan, Farad, GEA, Kelvion, Serck, Rumia, WUHU and Suction Gas.

Send us your engine type along with your cooler model and see how we can assist you sales@ami-exchangers.co.uk