Application Scenarios for Aluminum Tube And Fin Evaporators

Application scenarios for aluminum tube and fin evaporators

The core of the application of aluminum tube and aluminum fin evaporator is to balance the cost, weight and heat exchange efficiency. It is especially suitable for low and medium pressure, small and medium power refrigeration, cold storage and dehumidification scenes, and has an irreplaceable position in the domestic, commercial and light industrial fields.

Domestic split air conditioners (indoor units)

are one of the most common application scenarios. The core of the evaporator of an indoor air conditioner consists of multiple rows of serpentine aluminum tubes (usually 2-4 rows) with closely spaced aluminum fins (1.5-2.5mm spacing), which are forcibly sucked into the indoor air by a cross-flow fan. The refrigerant evaporates and absorbs heat in the aluminum tubes, while the aluminum fins expand the heat transfer area to quickly transfer the heat from the indoor air to the refrigerant to achieve cooling. At the same time, water vapor in the air condenses on the aluminum sheet (through the hydrophilic coating that guides the dripping), which also has the function of dehumidification, making it suitable for living rooms, bedrooms, and other spaces in the home.

Window Air Conditioner / Mobile Air Conditioner

Due to the overall volume and weight requirements, the evaporator of this type of equipment needs to be designed in a lightweight manner, and the aluminum tube and aluminum sheet structure can reduce the weight of the body while meeting the heat exchange requirements. Aluminum tubes are mostly U-shaped or simple serpentine layout, aluminum fin spacing is slightly wider (2-3mm), to adapt to the limited ventilation space inside the device, to ensure that in a small air volume can still be efficient heat transfer.

Vertical Refrigerated Cabinet / Display Cabinet

The evaporator of refrigerated cabinets used for displaying drinks and dairy products in supermarkets and convenience stores needs to work under the evaporation temperature of 0-10℃. Aluminum tube and sheet evaporator is usually designed as single or double rows of aluminum tubes, with fin spacing of 3-5mm (to avoid rapid frosting at low temperatures and blocking the airflow), and is installed on the back or top of the cabinet. Through natural convection or small fans to drive air circulation, absorbing heat inside the cabinet to maintain a low temperature, while the surface of the aluminum tube will be anti-corrosion treatment (such as anodized), to resist long-term erosion of condensate.

Compact Freezer / Ice Bar

For the low temperature environment around - 18℃, the aluminum tube and aluminum fin evaporator need to be used with defrosting system (e.g. timed electric heating defrosting). The “bridging” design (partial connection of adjacent fins) reduces the formation of frost bridges between the fins and prevents air circulation from being impeded. Its aluminum tube wall thickness is slightly increased (0.5-0.8mm) to cope with the need for structural stability at lower temperatures.

Home / Commercial Dehumidifier

The heart of the dehumidifier is the “Evaporator + Condenser” combination, where the aluminum tube and sheet evaporator is responsible for cooling the air below the dew point so that the water vapor condenses into water droplets (which are collected and discharged via a water catch tray). In order to improve the dehumidification efficiency, the evaporator aluminum fins are designed with a dense spacing (1.8-2.2mm), which is combined with a high wind speed fan (2-3m/s) to accelerate the heat exchange between the air and the aluminum fins. At the same time, the surface of the aluminum fins is sprayed with hydrophilic anticorrosion film to prevent condensate residue from causing oxidation of the aluminum fins.

Constant Temperature and Humidity Machine (Small)

In laboratories, archives, and other scenarios where humidity needs to be controlled, the aluminum tube and aluminum sheet evaporator, as the core component of cooling and dehumidification, needs to be linked with the humidity sensor. By adjusting the refrigerant flow, the temperature of the aluminum tube is precisely controlled to stabilize the air humidity in the set range (e.g., 40%-60% RH), and the layout of its aluminum tubes is mostly staggered in multiple rows to ensure that the air is in full contact with the evaporator.

Car Refrigerator / Mini Cooler

Due to the limitation of car power and installation space, the evaporator needs to be miniaturized and designed with low power consumption. Aluminum tube and aluminum sheet structure has become the mainstream choice due to its light weight (more than 30% lighter than the copper tube solution) and low cost, usually using miniature serpentine aluminum tubes (tube diameter 5-7mm) with ultra-thin aluminum fins (thickness of 0.1-0.2mm), which is suitable for 12V/24V DC refrigeration systems.

Small industrial cooling equipment

In some low-power industrial cooling scenarios (such as temporary cooling of electronic components), aluminum tube and aluminum sheet evaporator can be used as an auxiliary cooling component, absorbing the heat on the surface of the equipment through the evaporation of the refrigerant, together with a small fan to achieve local cooling, and its low-pressure resistance (operating pressure ≤ 2MPa) to meet the safety requirements of such scenarios.