On October 6 and 7, our Houston team made the short drive east to the Hyatt Regency Baytown for Heat Exchanger World Americas 2026. We spent two full days at Booth 102 with our partner Schoeller Werk, talking with engineers, fabricators and buyers about the part of a heat exchanger that rarely gets the spotlight: the tube.

Now that the booth is packed up, we want to share a few thoughts from the show and say thank you to everyone who made it worthwhile.

What Is Heat Exchanger World Americas?

Heat Exchanger World Americas is a conference and expo for the heat transfer industry. It brings end users, manufacturers and the wider heat transfer supply chain together for two days of technical sessions and an exhibition floor. The conference covers topics for oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, water and wastewater, and other industries, and the expo is free for visitors.

This year’s official exhibitor list included 68 companies, and the program was built around the practical questions people deal with every day. On Day 2, a panel took on TEMA 2026, API 660 and ASME Section VIII and asked who should be responsible for which decisions on a project.

For a Houston company that works on the tube side of heat exchangers, it’s one of the most useful rooms we can be in all year, and it’s right in our backyard.

Booth 102 With Schoeller Werk

We exhibited at Booth 102 alongside Schoeller Werk, one of the mills we work with. Schoeller was founded in 1827 in Hellenthal, Germany, and today it makes welded and redrawn stainless steel tubes for demanding applications.

Schoeller makes longitudinally welded tubes by TIG or laser welding. When an application calls for more, the tube is redrawn to individual geometries, very tight tolerances and special surface qualities. Testing is done in-house with eddy current, ultrasonic and X-ray inspection.

Visitors could also take a virtual tour of Schoeller’s tube production in Hellenthal right at the booth. It’s the closest thing to walking through the mill without getting on a plane.

The partnership works because each side does what it does best. Schoeller brings the mill, the metallurgy and the manufacturing know-how. Our Houston team handles the local side: technical questions, quotes, logistics and complete MTR documentation for customers across the United States, Mexico and Central America. Schoeller’s experts now visit the United States regularly, and we’re here between visits, so a question raised at the booth doesn’t have to wait for next year’s show.

What We Talked About

The best part of any show is the conversations, and Baytown delivered. People came by with drawings, current projects and questions they’d been saving up. Most of those conversations came back to the same fundamentals of what’s really inside the tube:

• Grade. Which stainless grade fits the service.
• Wall and tolerance. How tight is tight enough, and how consistently it can be held.
• Testing. What gets inspected, and how.
• Paperwork. Documentation that holds up at inspection.