Process Temperature Maintenance, the problem ?
Process Temperature Maintenance
The system is designed to stabilise at a safe temperature, perhaps by means of self-regulating heating cables. This is excessively wasteful, as power is applied continuously when often only a small demand may exist, if at all.
Temperature Control of complex valved piping systems, such as those around pumping sets and manifolds, can create a problem for the designer.All pipe sections are not subjected to the same flow conditions. Often, only 1 or 2 pumps are operational whilst the remainder are in the standby/no flow condition. A temperature sensor located on a flowing pipe may de-energise tracing on static lines when heat is actually needed and vice versa.
Process Temperature Maintenance, our solution ?
For installations of, up to perhaps 500m of pipework, parallel resistance self regulating or constant power heating cables are chosen which can be cut to length when required at site. When longer circuit lengths are required, series resistance cables can be used.
Conventional control
To correctly control a complex system from the pipe surface temeperature, each pipe section requires independant line switching. This is both expensive and complicated.
A second approach is to operate the heat tracing permanently, but uncontrolled. The system is designed to stabilise at a safe temperature, perhaps by means of self-regulating heating cables. This is excessively wasteful, as power is applied continuously when often only a small demand may exist, if at all. In such a case, line temperatures are often much higher than required, usually by 30°C, or more.
Kaizen IOT cloud control
iot self regulating system control unit provides the best control for complex piping systems. The ambient temperature is monitored and the power output from the constant wattage heaters is adjusted to precisely match the heat losses at any given time.When required, the Kaizen iot cloud control unit can additionally provide line control for fine tuning. The line sensor can be positioned at a point of no flow, eg, a dead leg or dummy pipe.Static lines will always receive precisely the heat needed to maintain the desired temperatures. Any unnecessary heat received by pipe sections having flow is safely removed by flowing liquid without significantly affecting its temperature.
This design method allows complex piping systems to be controlled as a single heating circuit in a simple and effective way.A single Kaizen iot cloud unit is capable of controlling large areas of process plant heat tracing, eg. 6 x 60 amp circuits, thus cabling costs are minimised.