FURMANITE NEWS ARTICLE

Heat Treatment - New Technology vs. Old Technology

Equipment and Technology in the Field Heat Treating Service Industry has remained virtually unchanged for over 25 years. A technological shift in the industry is being led by Furmanite, the leader and pioneer in onsite industrial field services for over 75 years. Furmanite has developed the most sophisticated portable heat treatment units available for deployment in the field today. Our new heat treatment technologies mean reduced manpower requirements, better service, better record keeping and more accurate temperature controls.

Historically, On-Site Field Heat Treatment companies have resisted adopting more efficient techniques for fear of reduced manpower hours and thereby reduced revenues. The use of multiple digital temperature recorders and strip charts monitored by individual technicians is still commonly used.

Furmanite’s state of the art Field Heat Treatment Equipment and SCADA Recorders provide accuracy, precision control, and advanced record keeping capabilities. Combine this with an overall reduction in the amount of required labor to complete a project and you have the most advanced, cost effective and controlled means of Heat Treatment technology available for use in the field today.

Old Technology
Old Heat Treating technology employs the use of 6 temperature controllers (Manual and Automatic) and a strip chart recorder per 6 way control console. Technicians must remain at the controls to manually adjust and monitor each machine during the duration of the Heat Treatment process. In the event of problem, a delay occurs between the relay of the temperature signal being sent from the work piece to the recorder, and then the time needed to read and interpret this data. This method of controlling and monitoring heat treatment processes can be labor intensive, especially if you have multiple stations of machines.

In addition, low level technicians are trained only on the basics of how to control and monitor the cycles during the heat treatment cycle. In the event of an equipment malfunction during the heat treatment process, a senior technician must be alerted to remedy the situation. If a senior technician is monitoring a thermal process it is usually at the sacrifice of production on the job.

New Technology
PLC (Programmable Logic Controllers) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) Software have been employed in several industries for many years. Recently Furmanite has employed these technologies to reduce manpower requirements on projects and improve productivity per man-hour and the quality of the heat treatment process.

The PLC’s used are a complex controller with multiple inputs for Control Thermocouples, Monitor Thermocouples, & Heater Amperages. They allow for technicians to link multiple machines together with either a wired communications cord or a wireless transmitter back to one central point of control. With a central point of control for multiple heat treatment processes, there is an overall reduction in manpower requirements and site labor costs are thereby reduced.

The SCADA Software allows one or two operators (Depending on the amount of machines) to program the heat cycles into each unit with the allowed deviation variables of the heat cycle and how many heaters that is located on each zone.

The work piece data is entered prior to startup with the following information:

• Purchase Order Number
• Work Order Number
• Line Number
• Weld Number
• ISO Drawing Number
• Customer Name
• Person Who Ordered
• What Code
• Special Notes

This allows for clear and concise documentation being given to the customer and guarantees that all charts are correct. With the old strip chart recorders, technicians hand writes the data on the strip chart. Charts can pile up and may even be misplaced. With the new technology the chart remains on the hard drive of the computer and is backed up on a storage device.

 

Furmanite Documentation and Data Security
Furmanite America Inc. utilizes advanced SCADA Software that contains fail safes built in to eliminate any possibility of documentation falsification. The Furmanite Heat Treating Equipment SCADA utilizes a fully encrypted file to store all time temperature data and weld information that is input prior to the heat cycle being started. The charts are then printed out from the SCADA Software itself or are exported into PDF. Additionally, the Furmanite system incorporates special quality measures are not built into the software.

Each encrypted Heat Treatment report has 3 unique markers (Fields) on it that cannot be altered:

• Registration Number - this number is automatically generated by the software & cannot be altered when the reports are printed of. This registration number is coded to the time temperature file before any data is input and stored on the hard drive.
• Date of Heat Treatment – This date & time stamp is also generated by the system. It marks the time when the technician starts the heat cycle and when the system finishes the heat cycle.
• Chart – The Heat Treatment chart itself will not allow a technician or user to add or delete thermocouples once the cycle is started and after completion. This can be further validated by exporting the data into excel for further auditing purposes only ( Excel format not encrypted)

As with any system, both old technology and new technology there is always a possibility for someone to try and circumvent a system. At Furmanite these 3 unique markers allow Quality Assurance personnel to audit our systems regularly. The charts are stored on the hard drive of the computer under there unique registration number and printed charts can be verified against them and the other two unique markers checked for authenticity at that time.

Charts are saved to a flash drive and kept on file at the local branch for auditing purposes and as a courtesy to our customer should they misplace their records and require another copy.

Myth of Machines Being Unmanned
Traditional Heat Treatment technology requires constant supervision and monitoring. It is not uncommon for field heat treatment technicians to leave their post to assist other technicians or for break purposes. With this old technology, it is much more likely for an adverse situation to occur during the process during any period in which a machine is unmonitored.

With new Heat Treating technology customers have the benefit of having the SCADA Software monitoring the process with one or two operators supervising multiple units. The software alerts the operator with an alarm screen that tells the control room operator what machine, what cable and what the exact problem is. With this new advanced technology human error in troubleshooting is eliminated.

Conclusion
Innovation is at the heart of every company. It allows us to increase performance, reduce costs, and decrease the amount of labor required for processes, while improving the quality of the process.

In today’s competitive environment customers pay vendors for results. The results being, that their projects are performed safely, timely and cost effectively. PLC & SCADA technology in the Heat Treatment Industry has a positive effect on these results in the following ways:

SAFETY

Less manpower required to complete projects Software monitors process and alerts operator to the actual problem No operators sitting in multiple stations that may be in harms way

TIMELY

Over 95% of the labor on project is productive Central point for all contractors and customers to coordinate work Documentation process streamlined

COST Effective

Reduced labor savings passed onto customer