If you are looking for combustion safeguards, look no further than Skokie, Ill. Why, you ask? Because that is where Protection Controls Inc. calls home.

PCI is the only company whose primary product is combustion safeguards. It has been that way since 1953, when Bob and Jim Yates founded the company. Bob held several patents in the 1940s for inventing the flame rectification principle, which says that the flame actually conducts electrical current and rectifies AC current to DC current. This principle is still in use today since flame rods are the most popular method of sensing flames in industrial burners.

Some things, like the flame rectification principle, never change. PCI, for example, is still owned by the Yates family 60 years after it first opened. Douglas and Bruce handle the day-to-day management of the company, which currently has 30 employees.

PCI’s signature product is the Protectofier combustion safeguard. This device provides continuous, automatic protection against the buildup of combustible fuel mixtures due to flame failure or other faults in furnaces, ovens, boilers and other heating equipment. Protectofiers are used in any application where gas or oil burners are used. This includes paper and textile dryers, dryers, air makeup heaters, thermal oxidizers and afterburners, heat-treating furnaces, and glass and brick kilns. The system can monitor one or more burners, and it will respond to the presence or absence of flame (via the flame rectification principle).

PCI makes single and multi-burner Protectofiers, and they all use the same interchangeable plug-in amplifiers and relays. High signal strength provides an advantage over the competition. Protectofiers work with either flame-rod flame sensors, ultraviolet scanners or both.

The company also provides the Protectal Unified standard or customized control panels for single and multi-burner combustion. Custom control panels are engineered to meet any specific operating or safety requirements. In addition to combustion system protection, the PCI Tele-Fault II first outage fault finder/annunciator can provide reliability and operating savings for monitoring ancillary equipment such as exhaust fans, water pressure, temperature limits and gas pressures in thermal-processing systems. These units can monitor up to eight readout positions and can be cascaded for additional readouts.

PCI, as an industry leader, is continuing to innovate and develop new products. This longtime IHEA member recently introduced the unique and revolutionary dual/redundant self-check ultraviolet flame sensor and combustion safeguard control for safety on 24-hour continuous burner applications. There are no moving parts, so reliability and durability provide a big advantage over shutter-based self-check UV controls. Known as the R-C 100, this new safeguard control may be used only with 6642 Protectofiers. The system, which displayed high signal strength, contains two UV tubes in one sensor to monitor one burner flame. Each UV tube is powered during a different time cycle to eliminate interference between the two UV tubes.

PCI is known for more than manufacturing combustion safeguards. The company has played an integral role in the drafting of combustion safety standards for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In addition to complying with NFPA codes, PCI’s systems are approved by Underwriters Laboratory (UL), Factory Mutual (FM) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).

Amazingly, PCI has been an active IHEA member since Bob and Jim Yates started the company in 1953. Membership is important because it keeps PCI constantly aware of changes in the industry’s requirements for safety and design. PCI prides itself on working closely with other manufacturers to establish safe and reliable products for electrical and combustion equipment used in the industrial heating industry.

 For more information on Protection Controls Inc., visit www.protectioncontrolsinc.com or call 847-674-7676.