Welded plate heat exchanger description As its name implies, the difference between gasket plate heat exchanger and welded plate heat exchanger is that each piece of plate of the later one is connected to another by welding to form a plate bundle. The plate bundle is then connected to the columns by argon arc welding. So there are two steps of welding during the assembly of welded plate heat exchanger. The first one is laser welding between plates, the other one is argon arc welding between plate bundle and columns. These two steps of welding completely eliminates the possibility of leakage and forms a compact structure for the whole equipment. Compared with gasket type, the fully welded type can withstand much higher temperature and pressure.