Mystery Heat Exchanger

This belonged to my grandfather who we think worked for Serck Radiators in the mid-20th century. I am told it is probably a heat exchanger which dates to the 1940s or 1950s because it includes aluminium. It fits snugly in a box that is 11 inches long and 6 inches tall. The mark on the side of the cylinder appears to include the word ALPHA and the numbers around it are 2, 5 and 5. If anyone can shed any further light on what it is I would be most grateful.

Hi

Looking at the badge/logo on the cast body the numbers appear to read 23 5 50 which may be a date stamp for 23 May 1950. Other than that and the mark you identified it appears to be totally anonymous.

Good luck

Martin

Looks very similar to the intercooler that my brother in law had built for the hydraulic system on his 50' catamaran, after he had problems with over heating up near Fiji. Ian S C

Thank you for your responses - the date is an interesting thought that hadn't occurred to me. As far as I know granddad had no connection with boating, and this object is one of the few possessions he kept by him to the end of his life, so it seems to be something that had sentimental value for him.

Also forgot to say in my original post that there are lots more photos in my album showing what is inside the tube etc.

Edited By Engineer's relative on 17/12/2013 17:56:02

What is it made of? It could be an hydraulic intercooler from some sort of vehicle, maybe military, perhaps the steering system of a tank, or the traversing system of a digger, something that gets a lot of fluctuating pressure, generating heat.

The system on the boat was the steering, one problem was too many very minor movements while on longer legs of their trip, about 5 days from NZ, to Fiji, and other similar trips.

Ian S C

Sorry I don't know what it's made of apart from the aluminium mentioned in my original post.

Could be a Shell and Tube heat exchanger see Here

Thank you for your response - I can see it looks quite similar.

I would keep it, it may come in handy one day.

CG

I work on the Class 158 for Arriiva Trains Wales, it looks very similar in design to the heat exchanger used for cooling the hydraulic fluid used by the transmission on our units although it is considerably smaller (and much much lighter, oh what a heavy thing to change!).

Hello,

It looks like it is made in aluminium alloy and I think it is a shell and tube exchanger. Mounted on a plate the way it is it almost looks like a display item. My thoughts are that it may be an apprentice test piece. So it would have been made to a drawing but won't be for any specific application. If it is your Grandad's apprentice test piece that might explain why he thought it important enough to hang on to it.

Carl.

Hi,

Sorry, you said in your original post it is made in ally...sorry for my numpty status.

Carl.

Thank you for the replies. We had thought about an apprentice piece but the dates don't seem to fit as Granddad turned 60 in the mid-1940s. We wondered if it could have been used as a model to show to customers of Sercks.

We have offered the heat exchanger to a few museums as we no longer want to store it, but there have been no takers. If anyone can suggest a new home or would be interested in having it please let me know.