First App of its kind worldwide:
NOCOLOK Flux brings aluminium brazing know-how to your mobile phone

The innovative producer of NOCOLOK Flux brazing flux, and world market leader Solvay Fluor, now bundles all the information on aluminium brazing in a smartphone App. The new NOCOLOK Flux-App puts all the information you need for your day-to-day business right where you need it – at your fingertips. This is another logical move in Solvay Fluor’s strategy of providing a full service on all aspects of aluminium brazing.

The App boasts a detailed product overview of all NOCOLOK fluxes and ancillary products, as well as their physical properties and GHS classifications. From brazing, soldering, powder and paint flux  coating to perfect corrosion protection: the App lists the packaging units, together with their weights, dimensions and a picture to simplify the selection of the required product.

But the real highlights of the application are the two calculators – which really help your day-to-day routines: the “Flux Slurry Calculator” calculates the amount of NOCOLOK Flux needed dependent on the number of litres required and the concentration of the slurry. The “Flux Load Calculator” calculates the surface of a heat exchanger and the amount of flux required for the brazing process. Additionally detailed answers on fundamental aspects and special features of aluminium brazing with NOCOLOK are provided at a touch by the “NOCOLOK Encyclopaedia”.

The free English-language iPhone-App (from iOS 4.0) is available now at the App Store for download. The Android version is available at Android Market.  The iPad version will be available shortly.

Just scan the QR code with your smartphone to get the NOCOLOK App:

OR Code for NOCOLOK App iOS

OR Code for NOCOLOK App Android

News from our Sponsor Solvay Fluor:

NOCOLOK^® goes Smartphone!

NOCOLOK is a name synonymous with innovative products and solutions. No surprise then that Solvay Fluor is the first to provide a smartphone App for aluminium brazing. Comprehensive knowledge in a pocket-size format for all users in the aluminium industry is coming shortly. An absolute must-have for all smartphone users. The NOCOLOK App will be available for iOS and Android, providing a wealth of useful information all about brazing with NOCOLOK.

The App features a full listing of NOCOLOK products sorted according to application, comprehensive key data and the new GHS classifications. All NOCOLOK packaging units are clearly indicated with sizes and weights. The App comes complete with handy items, like a calculator for NOCOLOK quantities in various slurry concentrations and a tool to calculate heat exchanger surface areas with details of the required quantity of NOCOLOK in kg. And for those seeking more specifics, the NOCOLOK Encyclopedia presents information about aluminium brazing technology.

The NOCOLOK App is currently undergoing beta testing and will be presented soon.

We will inform you as soon as the App is available as a free download.

A special program can calculate the surface area of aluminium heat exchangers.

This increase in efficiency means the same refrigerant capacity can be produced with smaller exchange surfaces at the condenser and evaporator, with an associated reduction in piping volume, i.e. a higher heat exchange efficiency means smaller systems and lower refrigerant charge. Important given that third generation HFC refrigerant blends such as R 410 A are much more expensive than R 22 which they are now replacing.

Greater reliability, easy recycling and lower weight Aluminum alloys offer high heat conductivity but also high resistance to corrosion. Brazed heat exchangers also boast higher mechanical resistance, especially in the fin connection, so that even incorrect handling or accidental collisions cause less deterioration with time. Moreover, microchannel heat exchangers are single-alloy system components which means easy and efficient recycling. And, although aluminum brazed heat exchangers have a similar performance to all copper units of similar size, they are about three times lighter.

Yorck heat exchanger

Brazing also offers the chance to change the design of heat exchangers by substituting round tubes with flat channels (microchannels) which offer improved heat transfer on both refrigerant and air sides for two reasons: better section/surface ratios, which affect the efficiency of heat exchange on the air and the refrigerant side; smaller surfaces in the air stream shadow where heat transfer is inefficient and lots of noise is generated. Brazed connections between fins and tubes are also rigid structures producing less mechanical noise in the presence of air turbulence.
More efficient heat exchange means lower air flows to exchange the desired heat, and microchannel technology already offers lower resistance to the air flow – flat is therefore better than round: reducing resistance by up to a factor of 3 under typical operating conditions (see figures below)!

Round Tubes – Air-Side Effects

Flat Tubes – Air-Side Effects

One of the largest potentials to increase efficiency of heat exchangers lies within the heat-transfers: reducing condensing temperatures by 3 °K will improve overall system efficiency by approx. 10 % for a standard R 410 A air conditioning cycle. A minimization of the temperature difference between the air flows and the phase change temperatures of the refrigerants can be achieved by improving the heat transfer efficiency of the heat exchangers. Brazed microchannel heat exchangers have already proven that they are a cost effective solution for the utilization of this optimization potential – as well as boasting a number of other benefits (see below). Brazed microchannel heat exchangers have been the technology of choice in the automotive industry for the past 10 to 15 years, and are already making inroads into the stationary HVAC&R industry for the following convincing reasons.

Poor contacts between fins and tubes account for approximately 5 – 10 % of heat transfer resistance in a standard heat exchanger manufactured by mechanical or hydraulic expansion of the round tubes because this always leaves imperfect connections between the parts. The microscopic image shows the small gaps between fins and tubes responsible for contact resistance that reduces heat transfer performance.

Fig. 1: Small gaps between fins and tubes reduce heat transfer performance in mechanically or hydraulically manufactured heat exchangers.

Brazed connections are much better because they metallurgically bond the fins and tubes in a single conductive material, eliminating all potential sources of contact resistance.

Fig. 2 Excellant heat transfer performance because no gaps in brazed connections.