Autumn weather and backyard bonfires go hand-in-hand. The chill night air is the perfect complement to a roaring fire. There’s a threshold though; build the fire up too high, and everyone rushes to escape to the cooler air outside the corona. It can be a struggle to find the perfect balance, because we lack control Read More
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The Importance of Burner Tuning
If you’ve ever been to a rock concert, you know that the folks wailing on the guitar need that guitar kept in tune. That’s why they travel with a good guitar tech. The tech makes sure that guitar player can achieve peak performance. Tuning is the key. It’s the same for combustion systems! Burner settings Read More
Keep Temporary Fixes Temporary
Emergencies can throw your whole operation into a tailspin if you’re not prepared. In a manufacturing facility, where being “down” means an idle workforce and lost revenue, the tendency is to use any means necessary to continue running production. Sometimes this means finding temporary solutions. Unfortunately, a temporary solution might become permanent for lack of Read More
Qualifications are Paramount
A worker who commits to a task and sees it through is a valuable asset, but they ought to realize when the task exceeds their qualifications, and seek guidance. Especially when the task involves important safety equipment, where making the wrong decision could create a dangerous situation for personnel and property. Parachutes and safety shut-off Read More
It’s Not Alive!
It’s common for an industrial plant to have openings to in the roof, especially when these plants have furnaces or ovens. A vent line allows excess combustible gases to exit to atmosphere, and a flue might allow the same for products of combustion inside the furnace chamber. Placement of these vents and flues should be Read More
Don’t Choke Your Furnace
Industrial furnaces require periodic maintenance to ensure efficiency and continued operation. Much of this maintenance can be performed by properly trained plant technicians, rather than relying on outside support. Depending on size and design, your furnace probably has two main input lines: one for natural gas (or some other combustible gas), and one for air. Read More
How Low is Your Purge Time?
The purge sequence is essential to the safety of personnel and the continued integrity of equipment. Purging the furnace of combustible gases from the furnace atmosphere considerably reduces the risk of an “event.” Safety should always come first, but it’s not uncommon to find purge timers in old panels with the dial pegged at zero. Read More
Commissioning Shouldn’t Take a (Literal) Lifetime
In the past, everything took forever. Lifespans were shorter, the world was larger, and mysteries were everywhere. We’ve progressed to the point where we can hardly stand to wait for anything, and yet, one still hears stories of excruciatingly lengthy furnace commissioning. The progression from construction to useful production on your new industrial furnace should Read More
The Proper Way to Light a Burner
Something we share in common with most other animals in nature is a drive for individual survival and the survival of the species. If your environment happens to include industrial furnaces and/or ovens, employing the proper way to light a burner is key to the safety of yourself and those around you. Our ability to Read More
The Mysterious Art of Burner Tuning
Burners should be tuned on a regular basis to capture peak performance and efficiency. Referencing the manufacturer’s literature and keeping a log of past settings makes tuning the modern burner a straightforward and scientific task. Once you know how to tune burners, watching the uninitiated try their hand at it can be amusing at best, Read More
