An experimental study on the heat transfer performance of a fin-tube heat exchanger due to mechanical expansion of the tube by bullets has been reported in this paper. The manufacture of a fin-tube heat exchanger commonly involves inserting copper tubes into a stack of aluminium fins and expanding the tubes mechanically. The mechanical expansion is achieved by inserting a steel bullet through the tube. The steel bullet has a larger diameter than the tube and the expansion provides a firm surface contact between fins and tubes. Five bullet expansion ratios (i.e. 1.045 to 1.059) have been used in the study to expand a 9.52mm diameter tubes in a fin-tube heat exchanger. The study is conducted on a water-to-water loop experiment rig under steady state conditions. In addition, the effects of fin hardness and fin pitch are investigated in the study. The results indicate that the optimum heat transfer occurred at a bullet expansion ratio ranging from 1.049 to 1.052. It is also observed that larger fin pitches require larger bullet expansion ratios, especially with lower fin hardness. As the fin pitch increases, both fin hardness (i.e. H22 and H24) exhibit increasing heat transfer rate per fin (W/fin). With the H22 hardness temper, the increase is as much as 11 while H24 increases by 1.2. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.