Adjusting furnace burners not only saves fuel, but also allows us to increase the return on investment (ROI) of the operation when faced with:
• Problems reaching the desired temperature
• Longer than expected processing cycles
Each kilogram of product that we fail to create has a great impact on the ROI obtained.
Adjusting your equipment can be the solution to reaching the ideal temperature, make your parts heat up faster and increase production. Learn more in this article.
Performance evaluation methods
Some recommendations from our experts are:
1. Establish a benchmark of the standard values in your industry to evaluate your performance in each furnace/process and discover the opportunities for improvement.
2. Measure the oxygen level inside the furnace to determine the current air/gas ratio and whether there is any infiltration. If oxygen levels are high, the furnace will consume more fuel, flames will be cooled, and you run the risk of oxidizing your product (in the case of metals). If you introduce the correct volume of air, there should be no oxygen in the furnace, since it is all consumed in the combustion process. This measurement can be conducted extremely rapidly without being expensive or invasive and will allow you to evaluate the status of your processes.
3. Obtain a thermographic image in order to determine the furnace wall temperature, to confirm the state of the insulation, and to verify that there are no relevant heat leaks that represent a danger to the furnace or its instruments. It is vital to check your entire system since sometimes the burners are correctly adjusted, but there are leaks in the doors or walls.
Tips for optimizing operation of your furnaces
Some recommendations aimed at increasing productivity are:
• Modify the heating curve by adjusting the set point and increasing the initial temperature value to reach the required level faster.
• Perform ramp-type reductions in temperature to increase production by shortening cycles.
• Space out the individual parts in the load for greater heat transfer. Increasing the transfer area decreases the heating time and allows us to produce more.
• Nutec Bickley’s IMPS system intersperses the use of burners to optimize heat transfer thanks to the principles of convection and radiation phenomena.
• The use of regenerative and recuperative burners in radiant tubes makes it possible to improve the system’s energy efficiency by taking advantage of residual heat from the process.
At Nutec Bickley we are specialists in custom systems. Contact our expert advisors to learn more about all the solutions we have available for you.
