Attribute Schema Library
Attribute schemaHVACR

Heat Exchanger Attributes for HVACR Distributors

A heat exchanger moves heat between two fluids without mixing them. In HVACR distribution the category runs from 20-plate brazed units to gasketed plate frames, fusion-bonded all-stainless, shell & tube and coaxial. Buyers are mechanical contractors separating hydronic loops, refrigeration contractors specifying DX evaporators and condensers, OEMs building chillers, and plant engineers replacing a unit that failed on a Friday.

The data is hard because every record is two products. Pressure, temperature, fluid and flow all exist per side, and most catalogs flatten them into one column: one "max pressure", one temperature range, one material. Capacity makes it worse. BtuH is not a property of the part, it is a property of the part at a stated flow and inlet temperature, and the rating conditions are the first thing dropped.

Then the variants multiply. A brazed plate line is model x plate count x connection type x size x braze x ASME or not, and the supplier expresses that as a part-number key, not as rows. Half the datasheets arrive from Europe in bar and MPa with G-thread ports.

Core

Every SKU needs these. Without them the record is not a product, it is a row.

Exchanger Type
enum
Brazed Plate

Top-level facet. Brazed plate, gasketed plate and shell & tube are not substitutes — they differ on serviceability, pressure ceiling and price.

Manufacturer Part Number
identifier
FPN5X12-30

The only key that survives across supplier price files, the AHRI directory and the contractor's cross-reference sheet.

GTIN / UPC
identifier
00612345678901

Marketplace and item-file matching. Without it, every supplier feed re-creates the same SKU under a fresh internal number.

Heat Transfer Surface Area
number · sq ft
68.3

Distributor catalogs facet on it directly. It's the size proxy buyers reach for when they don't have a selection program open.

Plate Count / Tube Count
number · plates
40

How brazed plate model lines are enumerated. Two SKUs identical but for plate count differ in capacity, pressure drop and price.

Connection Size & Type
text · in
1-1/4 in MNPT

Decides whether the unit lands on the contractor's pipe. Thread standard matters as much as size — G-thread will not seal on NPT.

Max Working Pressure, Per Side
range · psig
Side 1: 650 / Side 2: 435

Refrigerant and water circuits are rated separately. A single flattened value hides which side the number describes.

Design Temperature Range
range · °F
-256 to 437

Glycol loops, low-temp refrigeration and steam service all sit at the ends of this band. Publishing only a max fails selection silently.

Plate / Tube Material
enum
316L stainless steel

Decides chloride and sea-water tolerance. 304 and 316L read alike on a spec line and behave differently in a cooling-tower loop.

Differentiating

What buyers actually compare on. This is where catalogs win or lose the filter.

Nominal Capacity @ Rating Conditions
number · BtuH
175,000

How the category is merchandised. Meaningless without the flow rates and inlet temperatures behind it — carry both or carry neither.

Braze / Bond Material
enum
Copper (99.9%)

Copper braze is attacked by ammonia and leaches into deionized water. This field, not the plate alloy, decides fluid compatibility.

Gasket Material
enum
EPDM

Sets the temperature ceiling on a gasketed unit: NBR ~110 C, EPDM ~150 C, FKM ~200 C. Also the top facet for replacement gasket kits.

Approved Refrigerants
enum
R-410A, R-454B, R-32

The A2L transition split the installed base. Buyers now filter on refrigerant before tonnage, and R-410A-only stock has to be visible as such.

TEMA Type Designation
enum
BEM

Three letters giving front head, shell and rear head — i.e. whether the bundle pulls for cleaning. Shell & tube buyers read it first.

Compliance & identifiers

Standards, regulatory data, and the identifiers channels reject you for missing.

ASME Section VIII Div 1 Stamp
enum
U-stamped

Spec'd on commercial jobs and checked by the AHJ. Units 6 in. ID or under sit outside Section VIII scope — say so rather than leaving it blank.

AHRI Certification Program
enum
LLBF (AHRI 400)

LLHE covers gasketed plate; LLBF covers brazed and fusion-bonded. Engineers write AHRI 400 into the spec and check the directory.

Canadian Registration Number (CRN)
identifier
0F12345.5C

Registered per design and per province. Without it the unit cannot be legally installed in Canada and the quote dies at submittal.

Country of Origin
identifier
Sweden

Tariff classification, government and buy-national bids, and channel item files all key on it.

The fields that aren't in the schema at all

What most heat exchangers catalogs are missing.

The table above is the schema most catalogs already have. These are the attributes that usually aren't in it — each one surfaced by a signal from the live market rather than by an audit of what's already there. This is what Anglera's Schema Foundry does on a real catalog, in this category.

Search signal
+ Approved Refrigerants

Catalogs name the refrigerant in free-text titles ('for R-410A systems') but carry no refrigerant field. Buyers searching R-454B or R-32 get zero results on units approved for both.

A2L retrofit quotes route to whoever's catalog answers the question. The SKU is compatible and never appears in the result set.

Competitor signal
+ Rating Conditions Behind Published Capacity

Headline BtuH is published with no flow rate, inlet temperature or fluid basis. Two units both listed at 175,000 BtuH aren't comparable, and neither matches the AHRI directory entry.

Contractor sizes off the headline number, the unit under-performs on the loop, and it returns as a warranty claim rather than a selection error.

Supplier signal
+ Canadian Registration Number (CRN)

Manufacturers register CRNs per design and per province and publish them on their own compliance pages. Distributor catalogs carry no CRN field, so Canadian jobs can't be filtered at all.

Quote dies at submittal for Canadian work, or the unit ships and the provincial inspector rejects it at commissioning.

Competitor signal
+ Double-Wall Vented Construction

Plumbing code requires double-wall vented separation between potable water and a non-potable transfer fluid. Catalogs mention it in the product title if anywhere, never as a filterable boolean.

A single-wall unit ships for a domestic hot water or solar job, fails inspection, and comes back — freight both ways on a heavy item.

Review signal
+ Gasket Attachment Method (clip-on vs glued)

Replacement gasket buyers must know clip-on versus glued before ordering. Catalogs list gasket kits by plate model and elastomer only, so attachment style is invisible until the box opens.

Wrong gasket kit ships against a unit already drained and open. Return, restock, and the plant stays down another cycle.

How Schema Foundry finds these

Messy in, governed out.

The same value, spelled every way HVACR suppliers spell it. A filter only works once they agree.

Connection Size & Type
1-1/4" MNPT1.25 in male NPTMPT 1-1/4G 1 1/4 male1¼ NPT (M)
MNPT 1-1/4 in

G-thread (BSPP) is not NPT. Euro-built units ship G and won't seal on a US nipple — the two must never normalize together.

Braze / Bond Material
Cucopper brazed99.9% CuCu-brazecopper-brazed 316L
Copper

Copper braze is destroyed by ammonia and leaches into DI water. If this collapses to blank, the ammonia filter can't be built at all.

Max Working Pressure
435 psi30 bar3.0 MPa435 PSIG30bar435 psig @ 225C
435 psig

EU datasheets arrive in bar and MPa. Mixed units in one facet make the pressure slider return nonsense at both ends of the range.

Gasket Material
VitonViton® AFKMFPMfluoroelastomerFKM (Viton)
FKM

Viton is a Chemours trademark; FPM is the ISO name; FKM the ASTM one. Three spellings split one elastomer into three dead facets.

What buyers ask

Every one of these should be answerable from the attributes above. If it isn't, that's a gap.

  • Is this approved for R-454B, or is it R-410A only?
  • What's the max working pressure on the refrigerant side — not the water side?
  • Can I run ammonia through it, or is it copper brazed?
  • That 175,000 BtuH — at what flow and what inlet temps?
  • Is it double-wall vented? It's going on domestic hot water.
  • Do you have a CRN for this design in Alberta?
  • Are the ports NPT or G-thread? Last one from them was BSP.
  • Is it U-stamped, or do I need to order the ASME version?

What channels require

The same SKU, different mandatory fields per destination.

Distributor's own faceted catalog
Exchanger TypeHeat Transfer Surface AreaPlate Count / Tube CountConnection Size & TypeMax Working Pressure, Per SideApproved Refrigerants
AHRI Directory of Certified Product Performance
AHRI Certification Program (LLHE/LLBF)Nominal Capacity @ Rating ConditionsHeat Transfer Surface AreaManufacturer Part Number
HARDI-member PDX / PIM supplier feed
Manufacturer Part NumberGTIN / UPCCountry of OriginExchanger TypePlate / Tube MaterialConnection Size & Type
Amazon Business
GTIN / UPCManufacturer Part NumberCountry of OriginExchanger TypeConnection Size & Type

Heat Exchangers data, in practice

Why can't one 'max pressure' field cover the whole unit?

Because a heat exchanger is two pressure circuits sharing a wall, and they are rated independently. An R-410A brazed plate evaporator commonly carries a refrigerant-side rating near 650 psig against a water-side rating of 435 psig (30 bar). CO2 transcritical units go far higher — Alfa Laval's AXP line is UL-approved to 2233 psig. Flatten those into one number and you either publish the low side and lose the search, or publish the high side and mislead the buyer about the water circuit. Carry the field per side, and carry design temperature per side with it.

Which standards genuinely apply here, and which don't?

ASME BPVC Section VIII Div 1 applies to the pressure vessel, with the U or UM stamp as evidence — but U-1(c)(2)(i) excludes vessels of 6 in. inside diameter or less from scope, so 'non-code' is often correct rather than a data gap. TEMA classes R/B/C and the three-letter type (BEM, AES, BEU) apply to shell & tube only. AHRI Standard 400 covers thermal performance, split between LLHE (gasketed plate) and LLBF (brazed and fusion-bonded, to 16 million BtuH and 1,200 gpm). NSF/ANSI 61 and double-wall vented construction apply on potable water. PED 2014/68/EU and CRN are territorial. ATEX, NEMA and AWG have no business on this record.

What breaks when braze material is missing?

The ammonia filter, and eventually a unit. Copper braze is rapidly attacked by ammonia — the joints fail and the exchanger leaks NH3. It also leaches into deionized water. Nickel braze and all-stainless fusion-bonded construction exist for exactly those duties and carry a premium a buyer will pay when the field tells them why. When braze collapses to blank because suppliers send 'Cu', 'copper brazed', '99.9% Cu' and 'Ni' into a free-text column, the facet can't be built, the nickel SKUs look like overpriced copper ones, and the ammonia buyer goes elsewhere.

How much of this can be pulled from supplier datasheets automatically?

Most of it, but not from the pages people expect. Plate count, port size and design pressure usually live in a part-number key rather than a table — a brazed plate line is enumerated as model x plate count x connection type x braze x ASME/non-ASME, so a datasheet with twelve rows describes several hundred orderable SKUs. Braze material is often only in a footnote. Approved refrigerants sit in the installation manual, not the datasheet. CRN lives on a separate compliance page. Anglera mines all of those — PDFs, spec tables, drawings, manuals — and Schema Foundry surfaces the fields your schema has no column for yet.

More HVACR schemas

Air FiltersAir HandlersCondensing UnitsDuct & FittingsRefrigerant Line SetsThermostats & Controls

Run this against your own heat exchangers.

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