Around the world, the need to prevent contamination in drinking water systems continues to gain greater focus. Last year, Alfa Laval introduced AlfaNovaTW: the first range of heat exchangers optimized specifically to provide safe and reliable performance in tap water duties, thanks to a unique, 100% stainless steel construction. Today the company is expanding the range with the launch of AlfaNovaTW 66, a model that will create new possibilities for domestic tap water systems with higher capacities.

Limiting the metal content of water supplies is increasingly becoming a matter of public policy,” says Fredrik Ekström, President Business Unit Brazed & Fusion Bonded Heat Exchangers, Energy Division at Alfa Laval. “We engineered the AlfaNovaTW range to give customers a dependable and cost-effective way to better meet new requirements in their areas. By helping to ensure safe water supplies around the world, we hope that the unique design of these heat exchangers can thereby contribute to an important UN sustainability target.”
Many heat exchangers used in tap water systems today are constructed using brazing processes involving copper or nickel. If leaked into water supplies in sufficient quantities, such metals can prove detrimental to both the environment and to the health of human populations that rely on the water for drinking and other purposes.

A unique construction for increased safety
The difference in the AlfaNova design is a unique, patented fusion bonding process that Alfa Laval uses in place of conventional brazing. The result is a completely 100% stainless steel construction. This ensures a far safer solution than brazed heat exchangers conventionally used for tap water, as well as designs treated with coatings or where nickel is added to improve corrosion properties.

By using fusion bonding, we can produce a technology with all of the many benefits of brazed plate heat exchanger designs,” Ekström continues. “They are highly robust, corrosion-resistant and provide excellent thermal efficiency. But we can accomplish this with the confident assurance of safety that comes with true, 100% stainless steel.”
To best meet the needs of the tap water systems market, Alfa Laval has made the AlfaNovaTW range available as standardized models with connections corresponding to common tap water systems. For more unique systems, customized configurations can also be ordered upon request.

Having standard models in stock offers a number of benefits for this market. It ensures the fastest possible lead times, and also enables these businesses to provide more cost-effective tap water systems for their customers, with the same high standard of performance and reliability.

A broader scope of capacities
The launch of the newest model, AlfaNovaTW 66, will mean that Alfa Laval can now serve a broader scope of capacities with the AlfaNovaTW range.

AlfaNovaTW 66 retains all of the benefits we have been able to provide in the initial AlfaNovaTW launch, but in a larger design intended for larger systems,” Ekström notes. “This means we can now support systems for domestic water installations big and small, along with a wide scope of HVAC heating and cooling applications. At Alfa Laval, we therefore think about it less in terms of expanding our product range, and more about expanding the safe water possibilities for our customers.”
To learn more about AlfaNovaTW, please visit: https://www.alfalaval.com/products/heat-transfer/plate-heat-exchangers/fusion-bonded-plate-heat-exchangers/alfanovatw/