CTi Controltech - Williams and Davis Boilers Announcement

Williams & Davis Boilers of Hutchins, Texas announced today the engagement of CTi Controltech of San Ramon, CA, as the exclusive representative for Williams & Davis Boilers in Northern California and Northwestern Nevada.

CTi Controltech will provide sales, service, and support for Williams & Davis steam boilers, hot water boilers, electric boilers, feed water systems, deaerators, blowdown separators, and economizers. According to Jennifer Carradine, Manager at Williams and Davis, "CTi was selected because of their professionalism, knowledge, years of experience and courtesy to their customers. These are attributes and values we at Williams and Davis hold dear." Carradine later added, "We are confident that CTi will provide W&D customers and partners with the same high level of service and support they have grown to expect."

The Williams and Davis boiler product line adds to the already strong combustion equipment  and boiler offering at CTi. "WIlliams and Davis Boilers is a great addition to the CTi product line" said George Constas, President of CTi Controltech. "They are known for their innovation, quality and customer service. We see it as a perfect fit."

A Look Inside the Valtek Mark One Control Valve

This video provides a look inside the Valtek Mark One Control Valve and highlights its major components and unique design.

When reviewing industrial control valves, the Valtek Mark One globe control valve offers stands out because of it's excellent performance controlling liquids and gases, while at the same time allowing fast, easy and inexpensive maintenance.

The unique spring-cylinder actuated Mark One valve provides stiffness which contributes to the valve's high positioning accuracy, controlled high speed, repeatability, and response.

Electrically Actuated Control Valves for Data Center HVAC Chillers

3-way chilled water valve
with electric actuator
for data center.

A data center chiller is a cooling system used to remove the heat generated by computer hardware and storage devices, and transfers that heat to another place where it can be used for some other process. Chillers are used in the data centers heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. Large scale HVAC chillers are used to provide accurate and reliable cooling. These chillers work around the clock to keep ambient temperatures optimized for data center operation. Because of the considerable heat generated by so many servers operating in such close proximity to one another, accurate and reliable temperature and humidity control is critical. If there is a failure, building temperatures would rise quickly and possibly ruin equipment and lose data.

A main component of the cooling system is the chilled water 3-way control valve used to throttle the chilled water to the building’s heat exchangers. It is essential that these control valves control accurately and perform reliably. Also, and in the event of a power failure, they must be programmable to move to a predetermined valve position.

I many data center HVAC applications, electric actuators are the preferred means to actuate the control valves. Their reliability, tightness of control, and failure-mode programmability are key reasons why chiller OEMs and data center building engineers choose electric actuators.

Electric Actuator for Fuel Oil Control Valve

Control Valve Actuator

In a Power Station burning both low-sulphur fuel oil and natural gas, an electric control valve actuator was installed on an outdoor fuel oil control valve application. The existing 6” ball valves which utilized a pneumatic I/P positioner and spring diaphragm pneumatic actuator wasn’t performing well. A decision was made to use a ROTORK CVA electric control valve actuator because it provides extremely precise control-valve operation with repeatability and resolution performance at less than 0.1% of full scale.

Because the valve operates outdoors, and modulates frequently to control the flow of fuel oil held in storage tanks to the fuel oil pumps, its a difficult application to get precise control. The built-in Bluetooth communications makes it easy to set up, calibrate and monitor performance.

The valve failure mode is also very important, in both loses-of-signal and loss-of-power. The specified ROTORK Actuators use a charged super capacitor and the built-in programming of the actuator control to assure proper “fail-to” in any event.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from CTi Controltech

We at CTi Controltech believe the magic of the Holidays never really ends and the most important gifts we share are are family and friends. Thank you for a wonderful 2014 and we wish you peace, love, and prosperity in the upcoming year. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

High-integrity Pressure Protection System (HIPPS) Valves

A HIPPS (high-integrity pressure protection system) is a category of "instrumented system" designed to prevent an over-pressurization condition at a process plant.

For oil, gas and chemical producers, loss of containment is a critical matter.  Over-pressure on a tank, vessel or pipeline can potentially cause explosive, flammable, toxic or hazardous chemicals to be released causing possible loss of life or adverse effects on the environment. Loss of containment can also have huge negative effects on the plants bottom line.

HIPPS will shut off the source of the high pressure before the design pressure of the system is exceeded, as opposed to a relief system which will open an alternative outlet for the fluids in the system once a set pressure is exceeded. A relief system attempts to remove any excess inflow of fluids for safe disposal, where a HIPPS is designed to stop the inflow of excess fluids and containing them in the system.  Conventional relief systems are increasingly frowned upon because they typically vent, flare or discharge hazardous or toxic fluids in to the environment.

HIPPS valves are used as the final part of an instrumented system intended to prevent an unacceptably high pressure occurring in downstream equipment. They are always arranged to fail closed and spring/hydraulic actuators are usually the only practical alternative for operation.

You can see a full application note on HIPPS relating to valves and ancillary systems here. 

Industrial Burners and Safety Systems - Part Three

Igniters

Igniters provide proven ignition energy to immediately light-off the burner. They are permanently installed. Igniters are classified as follows by NFPA:

• Class 3 special: High energy igniter (HEI) capable of directly igniting the main burner fuel. Generally consists of a spark-rod, and power pack to deliver the high voltage pulse train, and required cabling. Operation time of igniter is no longer than required to light-off burner, within maximum allowed trial-for-ignition time.
• Class 3: Low capacity igniter applied particularly to gas and oil burners. Ignites the fuel input to the burner under prescribed light-off conditions. The range of class 3 igniters generally do not exceed 4 percent of full load burner input. Operation time of igniter is not longer than required to light-off the burner, within the maximum allowed trial-for-ignition time.
• Class 2: Medium capability igniter applied particularly to gas and oil burners to ignite the fuel input to the burner under prescribed light-off conditions. The range of class 2 igniters generally is 4 to 10 percent of full-load burner input. Class 2 igniters may remain in operation to support ignition under low-load or adverse operating conditions. Class 2 igniters cannot be used to extend main burner turn-down range.
• Class 1: High capacity igniter used to ignite the fuel input through the burner. Supports ignition under any burner light-off or operating conditions. Its location and capacity provide sufficient ignition energy at its associated burner to raise any credible combination of burner inputs of both fuel and air above the minimum ignition temperature. Tests are to be performed with this ignition system in service to verify that the igniter furnished meets the requirement of this class as specified in its design. Class 1 igniters can be used to extend the main burner’s turndown, where they are in service and flame if proved.