Freeze Protection Season is Around the Corner. Get Ready Now.

Winter is quickly approaching. It's time to assess your plant's heat tracing system and ensure it's working correctly. Alliance Technical Sales can assist you with heat tracing, control, and monitoring equipment. Along with industrial pipe heat tracing, Alliance can help you with commercial pipe tracing and surface snow melting. 

Anticipating freezing temperatures and protecting buildings, equipment, and grounds from freeze damage are critical components of a Facility Maintenance Program. Pipe tracing, drum heating, roof and gutter de-icing, IBC heating, valve de-icing, vessel heating, and enclosure heating are just a few of the freeze protection applications to consider.

Most common objects to consider for seasonal freeze protection:

• Pipe heat tracing
• Drum heaters
• Tote heaters
• Gas cylinder heaters
• External tank heaters
• Roof & gutter de-icing
• Snow melting mats

Plant operators and maintenance personnel must be vigilant to keep their equipment from freezing. Cold temperatures frequently cause objects and their contents to be damaged or destroyed. Pipes, valves, tanks, vessels, conveyors, and housings are just a few examples of everyday things that can be damaged by cold temperatures, resulting in disastrous consequences, costly downtime, and unplanned outages. 

BriskHeat provides an excellent Freeze Protection Planning Guide and Checklist. Download it here. 

Make sure that any freeze protection requirements you have are ready. Failure to ensure adequate protection in these systems against freezing can have disastrous consequences. Act now to stay ahead of your freeze protection requirements before it's too late.

Alliance Technical Sales
https://alliancets.com
630-321-9646

Heat Tracing Cable for Maintaining Critical Petrochemical Viscosity

Petrochemicals are petroleum-derived chemical materials. Many of these chemicals come from resources like coal , natural gas, corn or even sugar cane. The two most popular petrochemical groups are olefins and aromatics, the building blocks used to generate a wide variety of daily materials such as solvents, detergents, adhesives, plastics, resins, fibers, elastomers, lubricants and gels. Most chemicals and gasses move through pipelines and are stored in tanks in petrochemical plants. Petroleum-based chemicals often thicken and flow poorly at lower temperatures. If petrochemicals are not maintained at the correct temperature, viscosity problems cause the liquids to flow inefficiently and can starve or clog production lines.

To maintain the high temperatures needed for petrochemical output, install constant-wattage heating cable along piping. Constant wattage heating cable is a versatile heating cable mounted on the outside of pipes and valves (heat tracing) and capable of sustaining temperatures up to 260 ° C (500 ° F). Constant wattage heating cable is also used to heat long runs of piping systems up to several hundred feet. Heating cables are ideal for outdoor use and are FM-approved for hazardous locations. Insulation is advised to improve heat and energy efficiency and a temperature controller is needed to monitor constant wattage heating cable. On almost all pipe heating applications, constant-wattage heating cable may be used. Common uses  include freeze protection, viscosity reduction, condensation prevention, and more.

Self-regulating heating cable is another way to maintain lower temperature systems. This form of heating cable automatically changes its heat output depending on ambient conditions and never exceeds a fixed temperature, normally 149 ° F (65 ° C). Low temperature heating cable will reach 248 ° F (120 ° C). Typical uses for self-regulating heating cable are low-temperature repair and freezing applications.

For more information on any process heating requirement, contact Alliance Technical Sales. Call them at 630-321-9646 or visit their website at https://alliancets.com.

Baby, It's Cold Outside (Have You Freeze Protected Properly?)

It's winter and it's cold outside. Pipes will freeze. Processes will stop. Maintenance costs will rise.

Facilities that use or process chemicals, gasses, or even water must maintain them above 55°F (17°C) to prevent them from solidifying, freezing, or becoming too viscous to move. A few examples of these materials include varieties of diethylene (resins and polyurethanes), DMSO (solvents), paraffin’s (petroleum product), #6 crude oil (for asphalt), and many more. Often these materials travel through unique cone, funnel, or bowl-shaped vessels and then through a series of pipes, tubes, hoses, pumps, valves, metering devices, level transmitters, and more. During a cold season, if not protected, these systems can fail to operate efficiently or even freeze causing significant damage and downtime.

Not your typical heat tracing cable.

Often the complex nature of these systems, having many twists and turns, makes them difficult to install traditional heat trace cable to protect against the cold. Also, limited access or difficult to reach areas have their own unique challenges. Traditional semi-flexible self-limiting heat-trace cable is simply too rigid for many of these installations and does not provide adequate surface contact to be effective enough.

XtremeFLEX RKP by BriskHeat
makes it easy to heat difficult
shapes and sizes.

BriskHeat’s new XtremeFLEX RKP silicone heating tapes are the perfect solution for these challenging applications. The RKP tapes have an ultra-thin profile with a super- flexible 1/4” (6mm) bend radius. No additional temperature controller is required because a built-in pre-set thermostat continuously monitors and controls the temperature output of the heater. The complete unit is fully encapsulated in silicone rubber to provide an extremely flexible, durable, and moisture resistant heater. The unique flexibility provides exceptional surface contact for maximum heat transfer and effectiveness around systems that have complex curves, bends, and contours. The heater is also pre-terminated with a power cord and electrical plug to provide quick and easy power connection. RKP silicone heating tapes are a true plug-and- play heater that is both easy to install and easy to maintain. This design makes the RKP an extremely versatile heater for a wide variety of indoor/outdoor installations.

It is always recommended to insulate any heating device to provide a safe and energy efficiency system. BriskHeat offers an Insul-Lock®DS foam pipe insulation that is perfect for use with RKP heating tapes.

For more information, contact Alliance Technical Sales by calling 630-321-9646 or visit https://alliancets.com.

Electric Heating Solutions for Temperature Maintenance and Freeze Protection

Here is an Alliance Technical Sales product catalog for industrial electric heating and freeze protection solutions. The products contained herein are used for temperature maintenance or to prevent freezing of flowing fluids or gases in tanks, pipes, vessels, and lab equipment. Contact Alliance Technical Sales for any electric heating requirement.

https://alliancets.com
630-321-9646
Download the Electric Heating Solutions here.

Electric Heating and Freeze Protection Solutions from Alliance Technical Sales, Inc.