What is a chiller?
An industrial chiller, or absorption chiller, is a refrigeration machine designed to cool a liquid medium—usually water or a water-alcohol mixture—to a controlled temperature.
How does an absorption chiller work?
The fluid to be cooled is sent in a closed circuit from the chiller to the machine or industrial application at a preset temperature, known as the set point or set value (SV).
Once the fluid has been sent, it generally heats up in the machine or application as it absorbs the heat generated by the industrial process. The fluid then returns to the chiller at a higher temperature, where it is cooled again until it reaches the predetermined target temperature (SV).
The purpose of the chiller, or industrial water cooler, is to cool the fluid and return it at a controlled temperature to the machine or application.
What types of chillers cooler exist?
There are two main types of industrial chillers:
- Closed-tank chiller: all components are, in principle, under positive pressure.
- Open-tank chiller: the tank is open to the atmosphere.
What types of chillers do we offer at SMC?
At SMC, we only provide open chillers, meaning the type with the top tank open to the atmosphere. Our chillers can be installed and used indoors or outdoors and are compatible with dual frequency (50/60 Hz) across a wide range of standard electrical supplies.
Our chillers are classified as:
Refrigerant-based chillers
This type of industrial chiller controls temperature using a refrigerant gas circuit, which may be single-channel or dual-channel.
- Single-channel: Designed to control a single cooling circuit. Available in standard models or rack-mounted versions.
- Dual-channel: Designed to control two cooling circuits with different set point temperatures.
Thermoelectric chillers
These chillers regulate temperature using Peltier cells.
At SMC, we offer chillers suitable for cooling various circulating fluids, such as clean water, deionised water, glycol solutions and fluorinated fluids.
When should an industrial chiller be used?
The use of industrial water chillers ensures stable cooling, contributing to the optimisation of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) in industrial processes.
Several scenarios make the use of industrial water chillers advisable:
- Cooling with industrial water: Unlike chillers, this type of cooling may compromise water quality, as the source—such as a well or a pond—can contain algae, particles or scaling.
- Cooling with cooling tower water: Cooling towers often provide unstable cooling capacity and involve high costs, both for maintenance and water treatment.
- Cooling with tap water (potable water): Water cooled chillers can reduce the cost of water supply and discharge, providing both economic savings and improved energy efficiency.
- No cooling method available or unsuitable: If an existing chiller is old, maintenance costs are likely to be high, making it worth considering a new unit. In new applications, there may be no cooling solution, requiring evaluation of the most suitable option.
How to select the right chiller?
The primary parameter for selecting a chiller is cooling capacity, which is the amount of heat it can dissipate per unit of time.
The secondary parameter is the pump capacity, both in terms of flow rate and pressure. These values are directly related and can be found in the "Flow-Pressure" charts in our catalogues.
If the cooling capacity or heat to be dissipated is unknown, the chiller can be calculated and sized using the following data:
- Flow rate
- Supply temperature
- Return temperature
To correctly size the chiller, the flow rate and delivery pressure must be taken into account. Additionally, the ambient temperature is needed to adjust the sizing.
This sizing can be performed manually or with calculation tools such as our chiller selection software. This engineering tool provides both the cooling capacity chart and the pump capacity chart.
Need advice on selecting your absorption chiller? Consult our temperature control specialists.
