Product
Mechanical design software for shell-and-tube heat exchangers.
Built around the codes that shell-and-tube exchangers are designed to: ASME Section VIII, Division 1, TEMA, and API 660. One design travels from the process datasheet to the calculation package.
What it designs
Every pressure part, to the rule that applies to it.
PlutoHX designs the shell, the channel and its covers, the nozzles, the girth flanges with their bolting, and the tubesheets. Around them it checks the supports under wind and seismic loads, and the local stresses where the nozzles meet the shell.
It covers fixed tubesheet, U-tube, and floating head exchangers, including split ring and lantern ring designs, and the TEMA front end, shell, and rear end types.
- Shells, channels, and covers under internal and external pressure
- Nozzles, with their reinforcement and flanges
- Girth flanges and bolting for all three flange pairs
- Tubesheets to ASME Part UHX
- Saddles, skirts, and lugs under wind and seismic loads
What makes it different
Four things PlutoHX brings together.
- Flanges designed with the exchangerThe front end, tubesheet, and rear end flange pairs and their bolting are part of the exchanger design, not a separate calculation.
- Tubesheets in the same modelTubesheet thickness and tube layout are worked out to ASME Part UHX, or Division 2, Part 4.18.
- Fabrication sequence and fitThe exchanger is shown as it is built and assembled, in eight stages, so the shop and the site can plan from the same model.
- PlutoGen, the AI assistantPlutoGen parses the datasheet and answers questions in plain language, while the engineer stays in charge of the data.
The reference exchanger
One exchanger, used in every drawing and example on this site.
HX-123, a generic item number for the exchanger that every drawing, render, and example on this site uses.
Reference exchanger
- Item
- HX-123 (a generic item number)
- Service
- Crude exchanger, shell side and tube side liquid
- TEMA type
- AET: A front end, E shell (one pass), T rear end (pull-through floating head)
- Shell inside diameter
- 40 in
- Tubes
- 554, 1 in outside diameter, 0.134 in wall, 16 ft long
- Tube layout
- 1.25 in pitch, 90 degree (square)
- Tube passes
- 2, with 277 tubes a pass
- Tie rods
- 8
- Baffles
- Single segmental, cut about 22% of diameter
- Shell material
- SA-516 Grade 70N (carbon steel plate)
- Tube material
- SA-179 (seamless cold-drawn low-carbon steel)
- Design code
- ASME Section VIII, Division 1, with Code stamp
An illustration built from the reference exchanger’s dimensions, not a design output.
In more depth
How it works, what it builds, what it follows.
How it worksThree ways to start, the six steps of a design, and the approval that comes before any design.
Exchanger typesFixed tubesheet, U-tube, and floating head exchangers, and how the TEMA letters name them.
ComplianceThe codes and standards behind PlutoHX, with their full names and worked examples.
Coming Winter 2026
We would be glad to show you PlutoHX.
PlutoHX launches at the end of this year. A live demo shows how it fits the way your team works.
Visit us at the booth for a deep dive into PlutoHX.