“There was a time when the caveman’s torch was the top end of heat treating technology. We have since learned that all fire is not created equal. Heat treat technology has evolved from fire to combustion and from combustion to efficient combustion.”
Join Carl Nicolia, president of PSNERGY, LLC, as he challenges industry leaders to evolve with viable and proven solutions to achieve combustion and furnace efficiency in this original Heat Treat Today article.
This article appears in the June edition of Heat Treat Today’s Automotive Heat Treating magazine.
As a technical professional, engineer, and self-proclaimed geek, in times of uncertainty I take comfort in going back to fundamentals. Going back to basic concepts defined by fundamental scientific principles of physics and heat transfer brings us to a point where we know what will happen, and this can give us all some comfort in these uncertain times. We can take comfort in knowing that when we combine the right mix of air and fuel with an ignition source, we will get fire! And as the caveman said, “Fire good!”
There was a time when the caveman’s torch was the top end of heat treating technology. We have since learned that all fire is not created equal. Heat treat technology has evolved from fire to combustion and from combustion to efficient combustion. We have learned how to optimize the delivery of energy produced by fire to achieve remarkable results. There is high-value technology available today (i.e. low cost with high impact) that can be quickly and easily implemented on existing furnaces, regardless of size or age.
Businesses are moving through some of the most challenging times in modern history. Even though a few months ago the economy was booming, we are now being pushed to respond in new and unique ways. Many businesses, though, have existed for generations and have overcome other challenging market conditions. How did they survive? They evolved!
Darwin was right; “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. Intelligence is based on how EFFICIENT (my emphasis) a species became at doing the things they need to survive.”
Industries coming back online after extended down times and lost production days, are driving new customer demands for quality parts produced faster and cheaper. End customers are executing plans to ramp-up their plants to run at maximum efficiency. They are securing additional critical inventory and capacity from their supply chain. The productivity ante has been raised! Have your operations evolved to meet these demands?
Combustion efficiency and furnace efficiency are the heart of all gas-fired heat treating operations. Combustion and furnace efficiency can mean the difference between profit and loss, high quality and scrap, survival and extinction. Now more than ever, finding low-cost, easily-implemented technologies to increase efficiency is critical to your business’s evolution. Good news: Products and services enabled by revolutionary technology exist today and can improve the efficiency of your business. Because the technology is revolutionary, the implementation is simple.
Case Study
To understand the impact of this type of innovative technology, let’s look at an example from a contract heat treating company with a 9’ IQ box furnace. This batch annealing furnace is heated by four 5” ID x 65” U-tubes with bayonet recuperators. The company installed the latest technology of radiant tube inserts (RTI) into the exhaust legs of the radiant tubes. Once the RTI’s were installed, the combustion system was tuned, utilizing the latest sensing technology. The results are impressive:
- Recovery cycle time reduced by 25%
- Total gas consumption per load reduced by 5%
- Furnace output increased by 10%
Total time to implement this solution was one day. Total cost to implement this solution was less than $10,000. Payback on this installation was less than three months!
Combustion Efficiency
Combustion efficiency is getting the most energy out of the gas purchased and ensuring you continue getting that same level of performance. Most talk about the importance of proper tuning, yet how many recognize the likelihood they are not running optimally today and can quantify the impact? A furnace running just two points out of tune at 5% excess oxygen is delivering 8% less energy to the system. Jump that to 7% excess oxygen and you are throwing away over 20% of the energy. Keeping the combustion system in tune is critical (Figure 1).
Just like the caveman, gone are the days of running through the burners with a handheld meter once a year, making adjustments based on a single point in time. There are combustion engineering service teams utilizing the latest technology to achieve higher levels of system performance. It is no longer acceptable to take a burner view of combustion: It must be at the combustion system level. If your service team is still working with single handheld meters, it is time to evolve. At a minimum, service teams today should be equipped with the latest sensing technology that allows them to view combustion in entire zones, if not entire furnaces, record data over the range of operation, and store this data for trending and preventive maintenance.
Once the combustion system is tuned, it is necessary to ensure the system stays tuned. Technology that monitors combustion across the entire furnace multiple times per day is available. Utilizing the latest sensing equipment, along with leading edge controls and IIOT technology, these systems seamlessly collect, analyze, and store combustion data and provide simple actionable alerts that keep your combustion system operating at maximum efficiency. Utilizing this type of technology allows you to stay ahead of combustion efficiency in real time and prevent your operation from throwing away profits.
Furnace Efficiency
Getting and keeping maximum combustion efficiency is certainly the first step in your evolution; however, the only thing you get paid for is getting that energy to product. How well the energy provided through efficient combustion is transmitted to the product being processed is called furnace efficiency. Again, there is low-cost, high-value technology available to increase furnace efficiency.
Waste heat recovery technology continues to evolve. Recuperators have been a great first step that many in the industry have incorporated into their systems, but there is more that can be done.
Ceramic inserts are waste heat recovery devices that work alone, or in conjunction with recuperators, balancing the energy delivered across the entire length of the radiant tube, significantly improving furnace efficiency as well as increasing radiant tube life. Recent technological advancements in ceramic insert design and material have increased the effectiveness of ceramic inserts. Additionally, alternative radiant tube designs, such as bubble tubes and textured tubes, help deliver more energy to the product.
Don't let your radiant tube furnace be the caveman of your operations. Take comfort in understanding that all fire is not created equal, and many combustion technology advancements are based in fundamental scientific principles. Get more information on these low-cost and easily implemented technologies available to the heat treating industry today. Recognize that utilizing these revolutionary technologies is the key to evolving your business to measurably higher levels of responsiveness and performance and will allow your business to thrive in this environment.
Will you evolve?
About the Author: Carl Nicolia is president of PSNERGY, LLC, which provides modern solutions to combustion problems, improving equipment life, enhancing productivity, and reducing emissions through smart application of proprietary products, services, and technology.
For more information, contact Carl at cnicolia@psnergy.com or 814.504.2326.
