Method for manufacturing very large heat exchangers

Claim 1

A process for manufacturing a very large size spiral tube heat exchanger of the type including concentric layers of wound pipes between a central core and an outer covering and means for distributing and collecting fluid at each end of the pipes and means for conveying a fluid lengthwise in the interstitial space between the wound pipes, the process comprising the steps of mounting the core substantially vertically, surrounding the core with a horizontal support comprising removable floor sections disposed in a plurality of coplanar rings concentric to the core, with said removable floor sections extending up to close adjacency to the core, attaching one end of a said pipe to one of the means for distributing or collecting fluid, winding the pipe in a spiral about the core with the pipe guided and manually positioned during the winding process by a workman standing on the removable floor sections, moving the support with the workman on it vertically along the core during the winding of the spiral pipe thereon, attaching the other end of the pipe to the other means for collecting or distributing fluid at the other end of the core, removing some but not all of said removable floor sections to accommodate the increased diameter of the assembly by virtue of the winding thereon of said pipe, winding thereon a further pipe with the horizontal support moving vertically along the core, and repeating the attachment and winding of further pipes with the removal of further removable floor sections as the assembly increases in diameter.