Description
Table of Contents
What is a Vortex Tube?
The Vortex Tube is an effective, low-cost solution for a wide variety of industrial spot cooling and process cooling applications. Compressed air enters the Vortex Tube and spins at a rate of up to 1,000,000 RPM inside the air chamber. The air travels towards the hot end of the Vortex Tube and once it reaches the end, a small amount is exhausted through a control valve. The remainder of the air is forced back towards the opposite end of the Vortex Tube and it exhausted as cold air. A Vortex Tube can decrease air temperatures by ~115°F (46°C) and raise temperatures by ~200°F (93°C) from the initial air temperature.
Types of Vortex Tubes
Streamtek offers two models of Vortex Tube. 7500 Series Vortex Tubes are engineered to provide optimal temperature drop while maintaining strong air flow. 7700 Series Vortex Tubes are engineered to provide the maximum possible temperature drop while sacrificing some airflow. 7700 Series Vortex Tubes should only be used in special applications where the temperature requirement is below 20°C.
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Small Vortex Tube |
Medium Vortex Tube |
Aluminum Vortex Tube |
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Material |
Stainless Steel |
Stainless Steel |
Aluminum |
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BTU rating |
145 – 560 BTU/Hr. |
700 – 2800 BTU/Hr. |
700 – 2800 BTU/Hr. |
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Air consumption |
2 SCFM – 8 SCFM |
10 SCFM – 40 SCFM |
10 SCFM – 40 SCFM |
How does a Vortex Tube work?
Here is how a Vortex Tube works:
(A) Compressed air, normally 80 to 100 PSIG (5.5 – 6.9 BAR) enters the Vortex Tube through a standard NPTM inlet and tangentially through a generator into the vortex spin chamber.
(B) This air stream spinning at up to 1,000,000 RPM travels in one direction along the small (hot end) tube and then is forced back through the center of this outer vortex.
(C) The brass control valve on the hot end allows for quick n’ easy adjustment of the “cold fraction”; see specifications for what this means.
(D) As the center column travels towards the opposite end, it gives off kinetic energy in the form of heat to the outside stream of air and exits the vortex tube as cold air.
Best Vortex tube from Streamtek
Vortex Tubes are an effective, low cost solution to a wide variety of industrial spot cooling and process cooling needs. With no moving parts, and no refrigerants, the Vortex Tube spins compressed air to separate the air into cold and hot air streams.
Vortex Tube Applications Examples
Streamtek Vortex Tube products use innovative compressed air technologies to improve productivity, increase equipment efficiency and deliver enclosure and spot cooling, conveying, and blow-off. If you don’t find a solution and/or idea for your application, or if you want additional details, call our factory at 1-705-770-4455 or email an Application Engineer at support@stream-tek.com.
Applications
- Cooling electronic controls
- Cooling machining operations
- Setting hot melts
- Cooling soldered parts
- Cooling gas samples
- Electronic component cooling
- Cooling heat seals
- Cooling environmental chambers
Advantages
- Maintenance free (No moving parts)
- Cools without costly electricity or refrigerants
- Reliable, compact and lightweight
- Low cost application
- Durable – Stainless Steel
- Adjustable temperature
- Instant cold air
History of the Vortex Tube
Georges J. Ranque, a French physicist, designed the vortex tube in 1931. In 1934, Paul Dirac rediscovered it while looking for a mechanism to achieve isotope separation (see Helikon vortex separation procedure). Rudolf Hilsch, a German physicist, modified the concept and published a widely read paper on the device, which he dubbed a Wirbelrohr, in 1947. (literally, whirl pipe). Westley released a comprehensive analysis of the vortex tube in 1954, titled “A bibliography and survey of the vortex tube,” with over 100 sources. Curley and McGree, Kalvinskas, Dobratz, Nash, and Hellyar contributed to the RHVT literature with thorough reviews of the vortex tube and its uses in 1951, 1956, 1964, and 1979. C. Darby Fulton, Jr. received four US patents relating to the creation of the vortex tube between 1952 and 1963. Fulton Cryogenics, a subsidiary of Fulton, began producing the vortex tube in 1961. Vortec, Inc. bought the company from Dr. Fulton. Linderstrom-Lang invented the vortex tube in 1967 to separate gas mixtures such as oxygen and nitrogen, carbon dioxide and helium, and carbon dioxide and air. Hsueh and Swenson revealed that vortex tubes can function with liquids to some extent in a laboratory experiment where free body rotation occurs from the core and a thick boundary layer at the wall. The air is divided, resulting in a colder air stream flowing out of the exhaust, which is intended to chill as if it were a refrigerator. R. T. Balmer used liquid water as the working medium in 1988. When the inlet pressure is high, such as 20-50 bar, it was discovered that the heat energy separation process occurs in incompressible (liquids) vortex flow as well. This separation is only due to heating; there is no longer any cooling because cooling requires the working fluid to be compressible.
The Streamtek Air Knife uses innovative compressed air technologies to improve productivity, increase equipment efficiency, deliver enclosure cooling, spot cooling, conveying, and blow-off. If you don’t find a solution and/or idea for your application, or if you want additional details, call our factory at 1-705-770-4455 or email an Application Engineer at support@stream-tek.com.
