Tip Sheets

Browse through our listing of monthly tip sheets below and see how Cleaver-Brooks is helping businesses run better everyday. 

January 2012: 

Today's Tools Ease Tough Boiler Decisions
Typical decision drivers are: a need to increase fuel efficiency, a requirement to decrease emissions, a heightened demand for steam, a process load decrease, or escalating maintenance costs on existing equipment. 

December 2011: 

All Exhaust Systems Are Not the Same
Designing stacks to provide the right amount of natural draft involves a number of factors such as: Desired amount of excess combustion air...

November 2011: 

Determining the Best Boiler to Meet Your Needs
When selecting a boiler, design, application, capacity are considered. After that, fuels, emissions and efficiency are important factors to consider for optimum system performance that affect long-term boiler operating costs.

October 2011: 

Engineering the First Steam-Read Industrial Watertube Boiler 
Cleaver-Brooks took its past experience and proven design and combined it with new technologies to develop a steam-read, integrated, industrial watertube boiler system that reduces the overall project schedule by 30 percent.

September 2011: 

Boilers have a long, useful life.  Many large commercial and industrial boilers operate for 25 years or more; however, inefficiencies often increase with age.  Once of the best investments is to install an integrated control system on a boiler.

August 2011: 

On March 21, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published rules regarding air emissions in the Federal Register.  Two of the three rules pertain to boilers an are specifically designed to reduce emissions of air pollutants.

July 2011: 

Oversized boiler/burner cycling is extremely inefficient as it exacerbates fixed losses such as radiation and convection that increase at the lower firing rates as a percent of a full input.

June 2011: 

How many times have you been in an industrial steam plant and saw steam piping moving erratically back and forth or sideways due to forces exerted within it? What you were witnessing was water hammer, and it should not be happening.

May 2011: 

It is often said that once a steam boiler reaches 20 to 25 years of service, it’s worn out, outdated and ready to be replaced. In reality, this could be a very costly mistake?

April 2011: 

We as a nation consume over 33 quadrillion Btu's annually, which equates to over 20 million barrels of oil per day.  That is 25% of the world's energy.  So what do we do?  Burn alternative fuels?  Convert to solar, geothermal and/or nuclear?

March 2011: 

All too often, mechanical and boiler room operators have a tendency to regard electricity as dangerous only if it’s high voltage -- anything over 115/120 volts.

February 2011:

Stack Temperature and Efficiency-The Relationship
Appreciating the relationship of stack temperature to boiler energy efficiency boils down to a matter of degrees Fahrenheit (F). The key is understanding the basis by which one can properly evaluate the condition.

January 2011:

Controlling the Burners Fuel-Air Ratio
This month, we will explore the mechanical devices that can be applied to the burner to control the fuel/air ratio, and how a higher degree of  sophistication can result in better overall performance.

December 2010:

When Does O2 Trim Make Cents?
To combust a fuel, it takes fuel, heat and air. An excessive amount of air in the combustion mix is wasteful as it robs the burner’s energy, taking Btu’s away from the heat exchange process, applying it to exiting stack gasses.

November 2010:

Combustion Air Requirements for Boilers
Not often do people realize that combustion in a boiler is really a chemical reaction wherein carbon is blended with air then heat oxidized, ultimately releasing exothermic heat while forming carbon dioxide and water.

October 2010:

What you Need to Know About Converting Water to Steam
In the case of the water heater, the water does not reach 212° F, so it’s not boiling, but it could if the temperature sensor was not functioning properly, and the safety valve on top of the tank was blocked.

August 2010:

Limiting NOx Formation in the Natural Gas Combustion Process  
Combustion engineers of burners today, specifically those used in boiler applications, ovens and furnaces, are very aware of the by-product emissions resulting from the oxidation process.

July 2010:

The Basics of a Boiler Stack Economizer 
Boiler stack economizers have been around for years; using round, finned coils (normally 7 fins per inch), encased in an insulated metal housing which is either cylindrical or square in shape, and mounted on or near the boiler’s vent outlet.