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Introduction

Brazed Aluminium Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers are very compact exchangers built to a high specification for use in air separation plants and a wide range of other petrochemical and refrigeration applications.

ALPEMA is the Aluminium Plate-Fin Heat Exchanger Manufacturer's Association, which currently represents the world's five major manufacturers of brazed aluminium plate-fin heat exchangers (BAHXs).

The ALPEMA Standards are the key reference source for engineers working in any of the principal application areas for BAHXs including process, chemical, mechanical and maintenance engineering. The Standards are also an excellent information tool for purchasing and project management. They apply throughout a project's lifecycle from feasibility studies to commissioning and are a staple for every Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

Revision to ALPEMA Standards

The 3rd edition of the ALPEMA Standards is now available to purchase. Go to the Standards page for details.

Request to customers to safeguard confidential information

From time to time, customers provide ALPEMA Members with confidential information that has been obtained from other manufacturers. We recognize that this is done to try to be helpful but stress that any information sent to a customer in confidence must be treated with care. We have produced a short document on this topic.

Aluminum/Aluminium?

You may wonder why some countries use the aluminum spelling and others use aluminium. Well, the metal was discovered in the early 19th century by the British scientist, Humphrey Davy, who also discovered potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium. It is perhaps surprising that aluminium was discovered so late in human history given that it is the fourth most abundant element on earth.

Davy called the metal alumium which has the -ium ending adopted for most metallic elements. But later he decided to change the name to aluminum, and this name was picked up by Americans. However, the British wordsmiths were unhappy that this did not follow the rules of English so invented the name aluminium.