12 th edition noveber 22 nutec bicley

12TH EDITION, NOVEMBER 2020 NUTEC BICKLEYNUTEC BICKLEY

NFPA SAFETY AND SERVICING FORINDUSTRIAL FURNACESSERVICES SPECIAL12TH EDITION, NOVEMBER 2020

12TH EDITION, NOVEMBER 2020 NUTEC BICKLEY

ALBERTO CANTUVP COMBUSTION, CONTROLS AND SERVICES

Editorial

As promised, we have spent these last few months developing and improving our dedicated customer service protocol. We have woven together strands from our own detailed studies with ideas and techniques used by other organizations that we have observed as being highly successful.

Whatever their individual responsibility or area of expertise, we involve everyone in the company in our quest for the ideal service ethic. This, as you can imagine, takes a good deal of organization and 100% commitment on the part of all employees. Our view is that we are all members of the customer service team.

I’m glad to say that we have made great progress in our ‘Voice of Customer’ concept and designing plans and action cells in line with the central objective, ‘to delight our customers with equipment performance, quality, execution and service’. With this initiative in place, we aim to continually enhance our offering.

As an example, by upping our game in the past six months we have seen a 30% increase in spare parts delivered to customers on time. Constant improvement is not to reflect failure in the past but to always strive to be better in the future – it’s as simple as that.

Additionally, as you’ve heard me talk about previously, we have been working extremely hard on our Industry 4.0 platform and I can tell you that this is now fully ready. This will be at the heart of our customer support network. It means not only multifaceted remote assistance, but also immediate access to systems experts all around the world. The benefits of this are already evident, and I expect more to emerge in the future in a fluid move to what we may call ‘democratizing knowledge’.

The flow of information back to technical teams at Nutec Buckley will also pay dividends. We have seen in general commerce and multimedia how advanced technology has been used in the area of Big Data to understand trends and interactions, to facilitate the production of highly tailored portfolios: so, for us, extensive furnace and kiln data will become available which, subject to the same type of deep analysis, will push products and performance forward at great pace.

Naturally, we keep all of our other lines of communication open and I’m delighted to say that we just delivered our first webinar, in the absence of face-to-face events. A report is in this e-bulletin.

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NFPA SAFETY AND SERVICING FORINDUSTRIAL FURNACESBy: Alberto Cantú, VP, Combustion, Control and Services / Adalberto Barrera, Conceptual and Basic Engineering Manager

At Nutec Bickley we are members of the committee that formulates certain safety standards in the USA, overseen by the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA). As a result, we have participated in some reforms to the regulations and we are up to speed with all important developments.

Beyond being ‘problem solvers’, we are committed to being an agent of hazard prevention by performing regular maintenance, based on the requirements set down in these regulations.

Learn more about how we can help you work efficiently, in compliance with internationalsafety requirements.

A necessary but little-known service

The NFPA 86 Standard establishes the design and management requirements for industrial natural gas furnaces, for the purpose of safe production. It also notes the maintenance and operational points that the user must closely monitor during their daily activities.

Unfortunately, this American standard to which we adhere in Mexico (given we don’t have an equivalent one) and that serves as a guide for formulating our safety checklist, is not so widely known about.

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This is where Nutec Bickley comes in as a pioneer in this matter, since we use this standard as a starting point in the design of our furnaces, ensuring their optimal operation and safety. In addition, we recently initiated a furnace maintenance service in compliance with these standards.

Design safety for industrial furnaces

Furnaces must be designed to prevent ignition if the following elements are not as they should be:

Most of the time we can see that existing equipment does not allow high gas pressure to beinitiated, so it is necessary to bypass the signal. When this occurs, the system should be prevented from booting up since it is not safe to do so under these conditions.

Equipment checks required for safe operation

Here is a list of the checks we make to your furnaces:

1. Safety interlocks

For our contract clients we provide a maintenance service that includes two visits per year for preventive safety checks of the following:

Burners: general condition, block and internalcomponents.

Regulator diaphragm.

Temperature bypass: operation and configurationof the correct values.

Gas relief valves: verify that they open at thepredetermined gas pressure.

Over-temperature limiters: setting the correctvalues.

Flame relays: check the correct burner ignition sequence to ensure that in the event of there no longer being any flame in the burner, the burner will immediately cut off via the gas safety valve.

Explosion relief ports: check that they opencorrectly, test them and verify that they are not padlocked.

Manual gas shutoff valves: verify that they are not clogged or jammed and that they have the appropriate level of lubrication.

High air pressureHigh/low gas pressureFlame statusHigh temperature

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High and low air and gas pressure switches: check configuration and operation of correct pressure values.

Gas safety solenoid valves: ensure absence ofleaks and correct opening/closing.

2. Leak tests on safety valves

The regulations require that at least once a year we force test for possible leaks in the shutoff (ball) valves used to cut off the gas supply.

We can do this in the following way:

Close the valve by applying supply pressure.

Connect a rubber hose to a port in the pipeline at the outlet of each valve.

Insert the open end of the hose into a glass ofwater and allow gas flow.

Bubbles coming out of the end of the hose indicate that the valve has not been tightly closed.

See NFPA 86 for the number of bubbles allowed in this test method.

At Nutec Bickley we have the latest combustion system technology and our designs comply with current regulations. Contact our team and tell us about your next project so that we can help you realize it, backed up by the latest technology available on the market.

Stress test: force test the system with hightemperatures to verify that it works correctly.

Valve test system: verify that the system executesthe appropriate sequence.

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RECENT PROJECT

Installation of 17 high and low temperature ovens and kilns

Oven/kiln installation for refractory manufacturing

About the client

The client is recognized worldwide for the manufacture of refractory products used in the steel industry and on this project we worked with one of its largest plants.

This project comprised the design, manufacture and installation of 13 ovens and two kilns with temperatures ranging from 200°C to 1,650°C (390°F to 3,000°F) and retrofits to two existing kilns, as part of a major redesign at the client’s plant.

The challenge

Nutec Bickley had to design, manufacture/modify and install 17 ovens/kilns in the space of 12 months, so we had to be especially careful organizing ourselves in the following aspects:

Ensuring we had the required space in our plant for the preassembly of all these units.

Coordinating the execution of the project in which more than 80 people participated directly.

Coordinating the parallel installation of multiple pieces of equipment in the customer’s plant, where at times there were more than 30 of our personnel on site at the same time.

Our solution

One of the decisive factors in winning this contract was the fact that other suppliers only had the capacity to manufacture either low temperature ovens or high temperature kilns, with Nutec Bickley being the only one with the capacity to manufacture both.

Additionally, we demonstrated our experience and ability to design ovens/kilns in temperature ranges from 100°C right up to 1,800°C (210°F to 3,270°F).

We offered an ideal option, enabling the client to take on a single supplier to supply all of this equipment and to have it delivered it as a turnkey project.

Equipment supplied

The turnkey solution comprised the following equipment and technologies:

Equipped with stainless steel baffles to direct gases into the chamber and achieve the required temperature uniformity.

Equipped with a thermal incinerator to reduce VOCs.

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A high temperature convection oven (600°C/1,110°F) with nitrogen injection


We renewed the MCC and control panels

We updated the PLC and display

The combustion system was modified to comply with the NFPA-86 standard

Two retrofits of existing equipment

A) Modification of a Carbell kiln from another plant

Insulation was supplied using our Jointless system

Updated to meet NFPA-86 standard

Two of them with forced cooling using extractors

Two of them with an incinerator to burn the volatile gases being vented to the atmosphere, greatly reducing pollution emissions

The other equipment was adapted to install more incinerators in the future

Steel paneled ovens and mineral wool insulation

Design of baffles to direct gases into the chamber and achieve the required temperature

B) Transfer of a kiln from another plant

Operating temperature: 1,600°C (2,910°F)

Maximum operating temperature of 1,700°C (3,090°F)

Nine temperature control zones

High alumina bubble brick insulation

High velocity burners

Ceramic fiber lined exhaust vent

Incinerators in the exhaust for volatile gases

Two Carbell kilns

We provided a comprehensive solution in the agreed timescale.

Optimization of the use of floor space and improvements in operational logistics.

SCADA system to monitor the uniformity of temperature in each cycle.

Alarms in the event of suboptimal temperature or where there is some discrepancy in the heating zones.

Higher process quality and traceability in the case of rejects.

Using some equipment from other plants reduced investment costs.

We can quickly service the 17 new ovens/kilns as well as the other equipment.

We have HSE supervisors in the field to monitor the operations of our mechanics and electricians.

We have the knowledge to follow any type of safety standard in the design of combustion equipment. In this case it was NFPA 86-2019 (Class A oven and furnace design).

We opened our facilities at Nutec Bickley for visits to review progress of the oven manufacture.

Project benefits

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12 low temperature convection ovens (200°C to 350°C/390°F to 660°F)


Installation of new equipment aimed at dispensing with the support of outsourcing companies.

About the client

The customer for this contract is a company in the Mexican automotive industry dedicated to the manufacture of forged parts by means of heat treatment (normalizing) for automotive parts and other motor system components, for instance for coaches and truck tractors.

Our client’s challenge

This manufacturer was actively looking for a solution to address its need to absorb certain processes that it had beendelegating to an outsourcing company – and in this way to start doing everything in-house, becoming more efficient byhaving everything it needs internally, being able to better plan its workloads and, especially, being more flexible.

Our solution

Our greatest competitive advantage was to be able to provide highly flexible parts handling thanks to an automated conveyor system, eliminating the need for an operator.

This system provides excellent accessibility and traceability of production with information on batches, alarms and products. This data is all stored on the hard disk drive of a computer that operates as a data acquisition and monitoring system.

This furnace follows the automotive industry’s CQI-9 standard that states that the information generated during the process must be stored safely within the control system (SCADA).

Equipment and technologies supplied

Continuous high-temperature furnace with an automatic parts feeder.

Operation temperature of 1,000°C (1,830°F).

Load handling system employing high temperature rollers for fully automated furnace feeding.

Auto recuperative burner system to take advantage of the use of natural gas energy and to achieve lower fuel consumption.

Automatic transport system to extract the pieces from the furnace and take them to a controlled cooling zone to guarantee the consistency of each heating cycle

Acquisition and monitoring system.

Advantages obtained and results

Excellent temperature uniformity in each cycle

Low pollutants emissions into the atmosphere

No human intervention required

Automatic fault detection and diagnosis means the system knows when it requires maintenance and adjustments

Roller furnace for automotiveparts manufacturer

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THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMED ADVICE WHEN PURCHASING SPARE PARTSBy: Luis García / Isaac Silva / Hilario Zavala

When we are seeking out a spare part, we may not know what certain items are for or if they are being used correctly, so it is vital to have the advice of an expert who can assist in a number of ways, including the following:

At Nutec Bickley we assist our clients to choose the best spare part according to their current requirements. Discover below how we can help you and the associated benefits.

Spare parts that you can source through Nutec Bickley

We have all kinds of parts and components for your combustion systems:

Fives North American (FNA): we are FNA representatives and exclusive distributors nationwide in Mexico. There is a wide variety of valves, burners, fans, regulators, panels, limiting orifice valves and more.

Dungs: economically priced brand with excellent single/ double valves, flame detector relays, pressure switches, etc.

Kromschröder: a variety of flame failure relays, solenoid valves, shut-off valves, etc.

Siemens: actuator motors, flame failure relays, sensors, butterfly valves with actuator, flame detectors (Photocell), etc.

Fisher: pressure regulators, control valves, relief valves, etc.

ASCO: solenoid valves.

Honeywell: gas valves, fuel systems, ignition transformers etc.

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Knowledge about equivalent parts that replace obsolete models.

When you need a part that has long delivery times, you can find advice on temporary or equivalent

solutions, and the adjustments you need to make in order to use the replacement part without affecting

your operation.

Support in understanding if you are looking for the right part, or if there is a better one.


Delta Elektrogas: butterfly valves, solenoid actuators, etc.

Hauck: high quality burners.

Eclipse: burner package.

Maxon: burners and shut-off valves.

Benefits of having expert support

Some of the great advantages of being advised by a specialist are:

Appropriate equipment selection.

Avoidance of unnecessary spending buying incorrect parts.

Optimized operation, resulting from working with the most suitable parts.

Find spare part replacements without any problem.

Avoid wasting time searching for obsolete parts.

Problems in the plant quickly solved

Variety of options by having various brands of spare parts available.

Ascertain the corresponding standards to European, Asian, etc. standards.

Shorter lead times when getting parts from foreign manufacturers.

How can Nutec Bickley help you?

We will advise you in choosing your spare parts to operate optimally, via our team of specialized sales engineers in the following areas:

We recommend equivalent/substitute parts in the case of foreign equipment or when a certain part is obsolete, when you have an immediate need but are facing very long delivery times.

Replacement of parts under guarantee.

We take care of your spare parts guarantee locally.

We provide remote and/or face-to-face support.

We carry stock to support our clients in emergencies.

We deliver the product to your plant without shipping cost.

We advise on the installation of your parts.

We offer an installation service.

At Nutec Bickley we are specialists in industrial

furnaces and their various components. Contact

our expert consultants to learn more about all the

solutions we have available for you.

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Despite the prevailing situation, 2020 has been a year where more than ever Nutec Bickley has been addressing its achievement levels in respect of meeting the objectives of its mission statement: ‘to delight our customers with superior product Performance, excellent project Execution, unparalleled customer Service, and world-class Quality’. This is known internally as our PESQ Model and its four pillars are supported by a combination of our company culture and our people. By ensuring all our efforts remain aligned to this model, we will continue to improve as a company and we will grow sustainably. We never lose sight of the fact that our highest priority, indeed our reason to exist, is our customers and by better serving them we will in turn benefit the entire Nutec Bickley family. I’d like to say a little more about our PESQ Model.

A SUSTAINABLE VISION

When we succeed in routinely exceeding our clients’ PESQ expectations, with due consideration of all resources involved, then we will know that we continue along the right track. In all the above aspects, we aim to be recognized as a positive reference in the industry, in the locations where we operate and around the products that we manufacture and supply. We truly hope you get to witness first hand our PESQ initiatives, and I do encourage you to let me know how we are doing.

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By: Daniel Llaguno

President, Nutec Bickley


To us, this means that every furnace, kiln and oven we manufacture exceeds customer performance expectations and demonstrates complete reliability and safety. Designs should be world-class, as streamlined as possible, and provide for ease of operation and maintenance. Everything about the control center should be intuitive, while all the mechanical elements should meet the highest standards in terms of design, operation and efficiency. Pre-transit testing, installation, and commissioning should all go smoothly and all requisite system information should be provided to the customer.

We aim to deliver on time throughout the course of a project and to keep to budgets. Clients should be highly satisfied with the development of their projects. We plan for these outcomes by defining and implementing a thorough methodology, which has at its heart a standardized, effective planning system and total interdepartmental collaboration and accountability. Very close liaison with the client at every stage of the project, providing mutually beneficial lines of communication, keeps everything on track and running smoothly.

We strive for the highest levels of general and aftersales service, with a goal of complete satisfaction. This should be provided swiftly, professionally and should respond effectively to customers’ needs, both in terms of planned action and also in response to urgent requests and emergencies. It is vital in this respect that we have a well-trained team, sufficient parts inventory, modern shipping and tracking protocols, and state-of-the-art information system.

Where engineers are needed on the ground they need to be fully qualified and highly professional, and be in possession of all necessary tools and equipment. We continue to exploit all facets of our Industry 4.0 platform.

A top priority is to deliver world-class equipment first time round, preventing the need for extensive rework in the client’s plant. We aim to continually improve the quality of our furnaces, kilns, ovens and associated equipment, in a sustainable way. Our strategy has seen us define objective criteria, controls and in-process inspections, both in the plant and in the field, in such a way that quality is delivered at every stage.

We pay extremely close attention to every aspect of production, from the smallest screw, cables and ties, to each burner and its positioning, through to the perfect alignment and installation of external elements. Absolutely nothing lies outside our quality compliance objectives – both from the functional and aesthetic angles.

PERFORMANCE

SERVICE

EXCELLENCE INEXECUTION

QUALITY

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A) Main heat transfer categories

Conduction: this is determined by the type of material that is being heated up, since some conduct more heat than others; due to this factor, there is not much room for maneuver to further optimize the operation.

Convection: this is the change in temperature generated by natural or forced flows used in the processes. Emphasis was placed on forced convection methods since industrial equipment is mostly influenced by this type of heat transfer (as opposed to natural convection, which cannot be externally controlled).

Radiation: this is the method involving the greatest amount of heat transfer. It was explained that it is transmitted by electromagnetic waves, which are generated by the flash of the chemical reaction that occurs in the burner. This can be measured and, in turn, can be increased (if necessary).

WEBINAR REVIEW: HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE HIGHER PRODUCTION FROM YOUR FURNACE/KILN?

We are very happy to have staged our first webinar, which took place online on July 21, 2020 at 10 am (Mexico’s Central Time)

During the webinar we talked about a topic of interest to most of our clients: how to take advantage of the technology we currently offer to increase production in their industrial furnaces.

Themes we covered

We talked about the methods used to achieve better efficiencies during daily furnace operation and the key factors in heat transfer: contact area and temperature change.

For each, we analyzed the areas of improvement when it comes to furnace operation:

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B) Opportunities to improve furnace productivity

Practical applications: we talked about why it is more efficient to have the pieces separated rather than together, and how increasing the surface area leads to improved and more rapid heating.

Modification to heating curves: we talked about how to adjust the set-point of industrial processes (where applicable) by increasing the initial temperature value, this with the aim of reaching the desired heat level on the surface of the pieces more quickly.

Furthermore, making ramp-type reductions in temperature translates into higher production thanks to shorter cycle times.

Pulse control: we commented on the IMPS® system, which operates by pulsing individual burners to optimize heat transfer through convection and radiation phenomena.

The system uses a very high velocity flame 50% of the time and alternates it with the other burners, achieving a better efficiency than we would see with all burners at a medium or low flame speed 100% of the time.

Regenerative and recuperative burners in radiant tubes: we talked about our own technologies and also Fives North American regenerative burners.

Concluding the webinar, we ran a temperature uniformity simulation using our Fluent software.

About the speaker

The expert who gave the talk, Alberto Cantú, graduated from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Chemical Engineering. He also has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from the same university and a PhD from University College London.

He has over 15 years of experience in heat transfer modeling, especially using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) tools.

A great learning opportunity

This event allowed attendees to:

Learn about the available options and identify them to adjust their own particular processes and optimize them without the need to make an additional investment.

Implement the best practices in set-point adjustment and spacing between loads in order to optimize heating cycles and ensure temperature uniformity.

Analyze the options available to make the process more efficient through the use of radiant tubes (recuperative or regenerative burners).

We received excellent acceptance and feedback from our clients and attendees. Thanks to this, we are looking at new topics to share with you this year.

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CHALLENGE

Instructions:Analyze the problem below and answer the

question that appears at the end of the text.

Here’s the question: How do you figure out which switch controls the light?

13112221

What is the next number in this sequence: 1, 11, 21,1211, 111221, 312211, ___?

/NutecBickley

/NutecBickley

/NutecBickley

/NutecBickley

ANSWER FROM THEPREVIOUS CHALLENGE:

There is a light bulb inside a closet. The closet door is closed and you can’t see if the light

is on or off through the door. However, you do know at the start of your challenge that the

light is off.

There are three light switches outside the closet and just one of these switches controls

the light bulb. You can flip the switches however you want, but once you open the door, you

can’t touch the switches again.

Each sequence of numbers is a verbal representation of the

previous sequence. Therefore, if you start with 1, the next sequence

would be one, that is, 11. The next sequence would continue with

two ones, that is, 21 and so on.

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKU6Z6kVoXVePmT4T32fYQw


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DO YOU NEED A QUOTE FOR ANY OF THESE SOLUTIONS?

Contact us at [email protected] and let us know about your project requirements so that we can respond effectively and as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you.

12 th edition noveber 22 nutec bicley

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