Convection and conduction heaters are used in heat processing applications to create and apply heat via either a medium such as air or via direct contact.

One of the most crucial aspects of the overall health of an industrial heater is its insulation resistance, which can be affected by many factors. Faulty elements, age, moisture ingress and long periods of downtime can all negatively impact the health of an industrial heater.

Miura Boiler, Rockmart, Ga., launched a quick ship program. According to the company, customers can receive new boilers in as few as a few days. In some cases, says Miura, companies opt for a new boiler rather than seeking a temporary solution via a rental boiler.

The importance of safety in industrial ovens, furnaces and other combustion systems cannot be overstated. Hundreds of combustion-related incidents and near misses occur every year, resulting in millions of dollars in business interruption, facility damage, lawsuits, fines, litigation and lost marketshare.

When the 2011 edition of the industrial ovens safety standard NFPA 86 was released, for the first time, safety programmable logic controllers (PLCs) were recognized as logic devices suitable for the safe operation of industrial heating equipment. The safety PLC could now perform the control logic, but it still could not directly control the combustion safeguard systems.

Most modern thermal fluid heaters at industrial plants are reliable, so unexplained heater shutdowns do not happen often. As a result, many plant operators do not know how to fix a shutdown problem — they have never encountered one in the past. But, eventually one does occur, and it is usually at the most inopportune time. This means the operator is under pressure to get the heater back in operation.

The Admag Total Insight is a lifecycle-aware magnetic flow meter that reduces operating expenses and downtime by monitoring the health of the flow meter without removing it from the process.

It is not uncommon to see well-used ovens and dryers — perhaps 40 or 50 years old, in some cases — in plants throughout the process industries.

Thirty years ago, heat transfer fluid (HTF) manufacturers would sell virgin fluids at inflated prices and dispose of the used thermal fluids without regard for the potential of remediating the used fluid. Times have changed.

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