Cooling Tower Parts

Cooling Towers are an essential part of industry - from energy and power generating plants to cement, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, petrochemical, and other industrial manufacturing facilities. Cooling towers aid in the efficient, streamlined, and environmentally friendly production and waste heat process.

Cooling towers range in size depending on the industry being served. From HVAC applications to power plants, there are a variety of cooling tower styles and sizes including natural draft or mechanical draft cooling towers. All styles utilize a number of cooling tower parts working together to ensure efficient cooling operations.

Fans - Cooling Tower Fans from manufacturers such as Marley or Hudson are installed in mechanical draft cooling towers within cells near the top of the tower. These fans provide the upward draft of the evaporated water, to draw out the heat and cool the circulating water inside the tower. Fans themselves have a number of working parts including hubs, blades, bushings, hardware, and leading edge protection.

Gearbox - A Cooling Tower Gearbox from manufacturers such as Marley, Amarillo, and Sumitomo house a motor that powers and operates the fans. The gearbox is located inside the fan cells and works to reduce the speed of the motor for optimal fan performance while also providing support and protection for the fans to help prevent malfunctions or breakdowns.

Driveshaft - A Cooling Tower Driveshaft from manufacturers such as Marley, Addax, and Amarillo "connects the electric motor to the gearbox input shaft, thereby transmitting torque to rotate the cooling tower fan" (according to the Amarillo Gear Website). The driveshaft itself has a number of working parts including the coupling or spacer, hubs for the coupling, the flex element, and specific hardware sets for different models. There is a wide variety of driveshaft models depending on the size and capacity of the tower.

Drift Eliminators - Drift Eliminators for Cooling Towers are essential for maintaining efficiency of the cooling system. A high amount of moisture in the cooling tower is necessary to keep the cooling processes working. Air drift within a cooling tower can cause loss of moisture and result in a less efficient system. Therefore, Drift Eliminators are installed to retain moisture and keep it in for future cooling cycles. There are many styles of drift eliminators depending on the type of cooling system that is operating.

Fill - Fill for Cooling Towers optimizes the cooling process by increasing the surface area between the air and water flows for a longer amount of time. It assists the process of evaporation by providing a textured, extended air-to-water surface area. As hot water comes in contact with the fill, the water is dispersed throughout the material, aiding evaporation and creating greater surface area for more efficient cooling. Fill comes in many different styles, some designed for counterflow, some for crossflow, some with integral drift eliminators, and some with integral louvers and drift.

Nozzles - Natural Draft Cooling Towers rely on nozzles to distribute water over the wet deck fill. There are nozzle designs for crossflow and counterflow cooling towers and various parts to each nozzle including the nozzle body, orifice, splashplate, and adapter. Cooling towers utilize many nozzles all at once to help distribute water.

These various cooling tower parts work together to efficiently and effectively keep a cooling tower operating at the optimum level for its purpose. The moist, humid environment, however, can cause a great deal of wear and tear on the working mechanical parts. It is pertinent to regularly maintain all cooling tower parts and repair and replace as necessary to avoid a costly and time consuming plant shutdown in the event of a part failure. Regular inspections and maintenance should be a routine part of every working cooling tower.