Heat exchanger with resilient corner seals

A heat exchanger providing alternating cross-flow channels for heat exchange between two fluid streams and comprising a stack of consecutive, spaced, parallel rectangular plates;

• a frame enclosing the plates and having generally rectangular end walls parallel to the plates, and corner posts extending between and joining corners of the end walls;
• and at least one resilient corner spacer extending between and spacing corners of the plates from adjacent corner posts to accommodate growth of the plates due to thermal expansion parallel to their planes, said spacer including a corner support extending between the end walls and sealingly engaging the aligned plate corners, and a leaf spring having from three to twenty nested leaves, the leaf spring being substantially impenetrable to fluid flow, elongated parallel to the corner post and of generally arcuate cross-section defining a longitudinal apex and two longitudinal feet spaced from the apex, the apex and longitudinal feet sealingly abutting one of the corner support and the corner post, resiliently sealing the corner post to the corner support to substantially prevent fluid flow therebetween.

A heat exchanger providing alternating cross-flow channels for heat exchange between two fluid streams and comprising a stack of consecutive, spaced, parallel rectangular plates;

• a frame enclosing the plates and having generally rectangular end walls parallel to the plates and corner posts extending between and joining corners of the end walls;
• and at least one resilient corner spacer extending between and spacing corners of the plates from adjacent corner posts to accommodate growth of the plates due to thermal expansion parallel to their planes, said spacer including a corner support extending between the end walls and sealingly engaging the aligned plate corners, and a leaf spring having from three to twenty nested leaves, the leaf spring being substantially impenetrable to fluid flow, elongated parallel to the corner post and having a longitudinal crown and two longitudinal legs defining a generally U-shaped cross-section, the crown of the leaf spring sealingly abutting a corner post and the longitudinal legs sealingly abutting the corner support to substantially prevent fluid flow between the corner post and the corner support.