Process manufacturers who required heating as part of the process may have several different types of industrial heating equipment. These may include boilers, dryers, furnaces, heaters, ovens, dehydrators and more. The use and upkeep of this equipment is governed by a variety of standards and regulations.
In a Process Heating magazine article, Understanding Combustion Safety-Valve Standards and Regulations, Emerson’s Shaista Mallik unpacks and explains how to address some of these standards and regulations.
Shaista opens highlighting the myriad of players involved, such as:
…UL, FM, CSA, UR, AGA, ASME, ANSI, IRI, CE and NFPA…
She focuses on three of them specifically around the safety valves used in the combustion process of industrial heating equipment:
…Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Factory Mutual Insurers (FM) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)…
Some common safety components in the fuel-handling systems include:
…safety shutoff valves and vent valves as well as visual-indication mechanisms and proof-of-closure switches.
It’s important to understand the component fundamentals. The proof-of-closure (POC) switch:
…provides an electrical contact interlocked with the controller safety circuit. In a typical design, the switch is located at the bottom of the valve, positioned to trace the stroke of the valve disc. When the disc seal reaches the fully closed position, it triggers the mechanism to push down on the contact, closing it and triggering the unit’s visual indicator to show open or closed status.
Read the article as Shaista describes modularity options in safety shutoff valves and other installation options to simplify the installation and ongoing maintenance. She also shows the valve codes and standards for typical fuel-train installation based of fuel flow rate ranges.
Visit the Modular Fuel Gas Shut-Off Valves section on Emerson’s ASCO site for more on solutions to help you meet the codes in your locale. You can also connect and interact with other fuel train safety valve experts in the Fluid Control & Pneumatics group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community and or at the September 23-27 Emerson Exchange conference in Nashville.
