Valve actuators are a critical component in any heating, cooling or process related system. There are many reasons that actuators go bad or fail. Is the voltage correct? Has a fuse blown? Has the power board failed? Have wires become fused or disconnected? These are the most common reasons that electric actuators fail. While we at Thermaxx cannot control the voltage, we can alleviate many of the other reason’s actuators go bad. How do we do that? We have made available a very simple, yet truly effective way to prevent fuses blowing, wires getting overheated and control board damage. The WeatherMaxx cover solves all these problems! Read more.

Simply put a strainer is a component that has a perforated or wire mesh cylinder within the body of the component that causes impurities in the fluid stream to be captured and ultimately flushed out of the system. The fluid enters the body of the strainer, flows into and through the mesh cylinder. The mesh cylinder “strains” out particles such as rust, dirt and other foreign objects, within the fluid stream. Strainers catch larger particles that can interfere with proper operation of valves, steam traps, pumps, flow control valves and just about any component that has moving parts that could be hampered by the particles if not strained out of the fluid stream. Read more.

Summer is nearly over, now is the time to prevent pipe line freeze-ups! Frozen piping doesn’t only happen with water lines, there are many other substances and chemicals that are piped within a facility. Some pipes can cause shutdowns of production lines if the line freezes and breaks, creating hazardous conditions and in general wreak havoc! Read more.

One morning before work, I walked through our manufacturing plant and looked around. It was different. The employees had not shown up yet. Linking Information to Assets My eyes were still adjusting to the LED lighting I had just switched on. As I glanced across the floor from side to side, I thought to myself, there are a lot of THINGS in this space. I mean a lot… More

While insulation is not a new technology, it is being sought out more and more as a popular energy conservation measure. Whether it’s tied into a larger scope of work with additional measures, or being done independently, mechanical insulation projects render appealing paybacks that clients are excited to implement…More

The concept behind a heat exchanger is the use of pipes or other containment vessels to heat or cool one fluid by transferring heat between it and another fluid. In most cases, the exchanger consists of a coiled pipe containing one fluid that passes through a chamber containing another fluid. The walls of the pipe are usually made of metal, or another substance with a high thermal conductivity, to facilitate the interchange, whereas the outer casing of the larger chamber is made of a plastic or coated with thermal insulation, to discourage heat from escaping from the exchanger… More

In 1970 Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The act created The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It granted OSHA the authority to adopt existing federal standards or national consensus standards. In 1968 the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists published employee threshold limit values (TLVs) for hazardous substances. In 1971, per the act, OSHA adopted these standards calling them Employee Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs)… More

What is a sound wave? Not being able to see a sound wave makes this a difficult question. Close your eyes and picture dropping a hammer onto a table. As the hammer hits the table, you hear a loud noise. What happened? The hammer hitting the table created a disturbance in the medium causing a wave to propagate through the medium. What does that exactly mean? Here we are dealing with two independent events: first, the hammer hitting the table causing a disturbance; second, the wave propagating or moving away from the disturbance… More

The Smart Jacket has fundamentally changed the role of insulation. What was once just a line-item is now a window to the component within that can be utilized most effectively as part of a comprehensive asset management program. In this article we will outline the primary elements of an asset management program and discuss how these can complement, or sometimes augment, Smart Jacket data. We’ll often reference steam traps, but the principles are almost universally applicable… More

Corrosion under insulation has been plaguing the industrial equipment since the 1970s energy crisis first prompted companies to reduce energy costs by insulating their equipment. Corrosion under insulation (or CUI) can be a major problem if left unchecked; CUI can cause massive damage that is expensive and dangerous…More