12  JANUARY 2015 Process Heating

IHEA Profiles in Industrial Heating

There are a lot of firsts in Fireye’s history.Back in the 1930s, the company was

the f irst to offer industrial/commercial electronic f lame-safeguard controls, a photoelectric device designed to detect the presence of an oil f lame in less than a second. Fireye also claims to be the f irst company to develop infrared scanners to monitor both gas and oil f lames; the f irst to develop a scan-ner that discriminated between signals from adjacent burners; and the f irst to create a completely solid-state pro-gramming control.

The company has also set new stan-dards with a microprocessor-based, auto-matic diagnostics program that commu-

nicates in five different languages. Today, Fireye is a manufacturer of

f lame-safeguard controls and burner management systems for industrial and commercial applications. Its products can be found in power plants, pulp and paper mills, petrochemical facilities and food processing plants as well as a variety of public buildings and com-mercial properties. Derry, N.H.-based Fireye is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

ISO 9001-certif ied since 1996, Fireye maintains 20 offices worldwide with approximately 130 employees. This means that seasoned professionals in

the f lame safeguard and combustion control industry are available world-wide, providing quick, responsive ser-vice to customers.

The company’s modern manufac-turing centers design, fabricate and assemble products. Fireye’s engineer-ing staff continuously evaluates and tests ideas at its laboratories and research facilities. The staff also looks for ways to improve current products and develop new entries into related aspects of combustion control and management. Fireye is a UL-approved testing facility (temperature, humid-ity, electric static discharge, etc.) and is required to comply with UL372 for primary safety controls.

Flame safeguards — detecting friendly f lames using ultraviolet tubes and solid-state devices and infrared solid-state detectors — are clearly Fireye’s specialty. But, the company also offers high technology f lame scanners that employ techniques to discriminate among many f lames in a multi-burner environment. These scanners allow for precise tuning to one particular target f lame while ignoring the effect of adjacent f lames or background radiation.

Features of its Model 95 Series include:

• Complex f lame-analysis meth-ods such as selectivity of spectral response in the ultraviolet or infrared region, or both.

• Adjustable sensitivity to f lame-signal strength to determine a f lame-on vs. f lame-off condition.

• Flicker frequency selection to dis-criminate from f lame to f lame.

The Paragon f lame scanner can opti-cally detect maximum f lame tempera-ture in addition to f lame detection.

The company has been busy recently.

Fireye Inc.

Flame Safeguard and Combustion Controls

By Bill Mayer

Fireye’s products offer customers benefits such as fuel savings, emissions reduction and enhanced operational capabilities.

14  JANUARY 2015 Process Heating

IHEA Profiles in Industrial Heating

Just last year, the longtime IHEA mem-ber started offering an efficiency con-trol for hot water boilers that realizes approximately 10 to 20 percent energy savings. It monitors the temperature and rate of decay on the supply and return water lines and utilizes a cor-rective, adaptive control algorithm to determine if the call for heat is real or just a response to standing energy losses. Simple to install, NXM2G offers a typical return on investment between one and two years.

Fireye utilizes an ACE business operating system — a set of 12 tools — to continuously improve its processes with the goal of improved quality and customer satisfaction. The ACE tools guide the team to determine the root cause of issues and enable mistake-proofed solutions.

This company of f irsts constantly invests in its manufacturing capabil-ity to ensure the company keeps pace with new technologies and global

competition. As proof, Fireye will launch a new version of its PPC4000 parallel positioning control this year. The improved model will incorporate the f lame-safeguard control function-ality. Fireye also plans to develop and evolve its next generation of discrimi-nating f lame scanners, explore the application of solid-state ultraviolet detectors and expand on its offering of energy-eff iciency products. *

For more information on Fireye Inc., visit www.fireye.com or call 603-432-4100.

Profiles in Heating showcases members of the Industrial Heating Equipment Association, a voluntary national trade association repre-senting the major segments of the industrial heat processing equipment industry. To learn more about IHEA, Taylor Mill, Ky., call (859) 356-1575 or visit www.ihea.org.

Accurate, reliable flame monitoring is critical for burner safety.