From the first industrial revolution to the fourth, inspirational change has been driven by a willingness to embrace the unconventional and cross-traditional industry boundaries. A partnership between one of the UK’s oldest and bestknown boiler manufacturers, Byworth Boilers, and SICK has helped fine-tune its boiler house controls to save up to seven per cent on customer fuel bills.
Heroic and historic, steam has always had the power to inspire
At its heart is the industrial boiler, a process-critical workhorse that must always be completely reliable. With an agile approach to problem solving, Byworth’s competitive advantage has been protected by a commitment to continuous improvement; reducing customers’ fuel use, increasing operating efficiency and minimising downtime.
In early 2020, Byworth Boilers will open a £2 million extension to its manufacturing headquarters in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in the UK.
Industrial boilers are energy hungry
Measurement and control are the means to get every last drop of fuel efficiency, by keeping every element of pressure, level and temperature in perfect balance. Byworth’s relationship with SICK has grown from initial research and development trials of a simple pressure switch, to the point where Byworth has standardised SICK instruments for various processes across its boiler ranges.
SICK’s PBS pressure transmitter, LFP guided wave radar level sensor, TBS temperature switch and DOSIC ultrasonic flowmeter are used for new systems as well as for replacement parts, and the FTS calorimetric flow switch has recently completed successful tests in the research and development centre.
Jason Atkinson, Head of Technical and Product Development, stresses that while performance of the technology is important, it’s supply chain relationships that are mission critical.
“From the customers’ point of view, it’s the Byworth Boiler that performs, not any one of the instruments or control systems on it. So our suppliers need to be long-term partners.”
Guided wave radar technology for sensing water level in the boiler
Mr Atkinson said the LFP guided wave radar gives them a much more reliable, accurate level, so they can run their feedwater system much more tightly. “We do not get so many swings in water level. The more the water level fluctuates, the less heat efficient the system is,” Mr Atkinson said.
Successful trials with dosic ultrasonic flow sensor confirm competitiveness and accuracy
Byworth’s successful trials of the DOSIC ultrasonic flow sensor from SICK confirmed its competitiveness and accuracy, so it has been introduced for feed tank metering on the smaller boiler range.
“On the Unity systems we have done studies that demonstrate fuel savings of seven per cent annually, over and above what is achieved just by installing a new plant. That’s based around how we control everything from one unit in the boiler house, rather than in separate, individual processes – how we sequence boilers, how we modulate them, how we bring them online and so on,” Mr Atkinson said.
“Standardising on sensors helps us to control the data coming from different parts of the boiler house a lot more finely.”
This Sponsored Editorial is brought to you by SICK. For more information, visit www.sick.com/au/en/.
