About

Don Fleming, P.Eng.

President and chief engineer of PVHTC — and, after five decades in the field, still the only freelance senior thermal designer in Canada.

P.ENG — ALBERTA & ONTARIO ASME MEMBER HTRI MEMBER FMR. HTFS N.A. SHELL & TUBE COMMITTEE SHELL CANADA INNOVATION AWARD
Portrait of Don Fleming, President and Chief Engineer of PVHTC
DON FLEMING · PRESIDENT & CHIEF ENGINEER

An independent firm with a senior engineer's depth.

Pressure Vessels and Heat Transfer Consultants (PVHTC) is an independent engineering firm specializing in the design and rating of heat transfer equipment and pressure vessels. Don has served clients throughout North America and around the world — from small and mid-size fabricators who rely on PVHTC almost exclusively for engineering and design, up to large fabricators who bring in PVHTC for specialized engineering and consulting.

The firm runs on a comprehensive package of current design technology: the full HTRI and HTFS program suites for thermal design, mechanical design of equipment to ASME and TEMA specifications, and finite element analysis for complex pressure vessels and structural elements.

All business is conducted electronically — email in, drawings and calculations out. Email is the preferred and fastest way to reach Don.

Credentials

The short version, up front.

Licensure

P.Eng. — Alberta & Ontario

Registered professional engineer in both provinces.

Societies

ASME · HTRI

Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Heat Transfer Research Institute; former member of the HTFS North American Shell and Tube Committee.

Recognition

Shell Canada innovation award

Awarded for innovative exchanger design — including the no-baffle grid-support condenser still running failure-free after 15+ years.

Toolset

Full HTRI & HTFS suites

Plus mechanical design to ASME/TEMA, pipe stress analysis, and FEA for complex vessels.

Career

Fifty years, one specialty.

Senior thermal and mechanical roles at the EPC firms that built Western Canada's energy infrastructure — then independent since 1989.

  1. 1989 — present · President & OwnerPressure Vessels and Heat Transfer Consultants Ltd., Calgary

    Independent thermal and mechanical design for fabricators, EPCs, and operators across North America and beyond.

  2. Senior Heat Transfer EngineerBantrel Group of Engineers Ltd.

    Heat exchangers and fire-heaters: Syncrude, Suncor, Shell, BP, and Husky projects.

  3. Senior Heat Transfer EngineerSNC / Foster Wheeler Inc.

    High- and low-pressure shell-and-tube exchangers, air-cooled exchangers, hydrogen reformer and pressure vessels — Syncrude Caps Project.

  4. Senior Mechanical EngineerMonenco Engineers & Constructors Inc.

    Heat transfer equipment, vessels and piping — Mazzeppa gas plant, Syncrude Caps, Esso Judy Creek; Head Mechanical Engineer on the Tesoro sulphur plant, Kenai, Alaska.

  5. Senior Heat Transfer EngineerDelta Projects Ltd.

    Shell-and-tube exchangers on the Syncrude Debottleneck Project; air coolers and exchangers for Esso Cold Lake, Shell Progress, and Petro-Canada Brazeau River.

  6. Heat Transfer EngineerMHG (Monenco/Humphrey/Glascow) International Ltd.

    Exchangers, API and FRP tanks, and vessels — Polysar, Great Canadian Oil Sands (Suncor), Petrosar, PanCanadian Morley.

  7. Junior EngineerWestern Lab / Geoservices North American Ltd.

    Offshore platforms in the Arctic and onshore drilling rigs across Western Canada.

  8. Junior EngineerNoranda Special Metal Industries Ltd.

    Machinery for manufacturing special-alloy seamless tubes — where the tubes themselves got their start.

Work with Don

One engineer. The whole problem.

The same senior engineer from first email to final drawings. Email the datasheet and hear back from the person who'll design it.