“This will be quite a year for Fulton,” Fulton, sales and marketing manager Doug Howarth said. “Not only are we celebrating 50 years of manufacturing in the UK, but we’re also launching a great new heat transfer solution that we believe to be the most radical change in steam boiler design since we pioneered the vertical tubeless boiler in 1949.”
By adopting a systems engineering approach to design and using its own ‘PURE’ technology, Fulton’s SRT Series challenges the heat transfer and mechanical design principles of traditional vertical steam boilers.
With over 30 worldwide patents pending, the new vertical boiler’s spiral-rib tubeless design is a world first that has enabled Fulton to create a compact boiler with the industry’s smallest footprint. In fact, compared to the equivalent 30hp model from the company’s renowned J Series, the SRT Series is an impressive 40% smaller.
Using a combination of in-house modelling with computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis, the ‘PURE Optimised’ design of the SRT Series makes the new boiler durable and reliable in operation; and with up to 6:1 turndown and featuring a fully-modulating burner, the SRT also boasts industry-leading performance with an 84.5% Gross (93.5% Net) thermal efficiency and 99.5% steam quality from a fully-water-backed design with no refractory.
The SRT Series features patented, self-compensating stress relief architecture that virtually removes longitudinal stress and deflection absorption. And, to comply with anticipated EU regulations, the boiler’s combustion technology has also been completely reconfigured, with the mesh burner and furnace designed as a single component, resulting in ultra-low NOx emissions of less than 40mg/kWh.
Fulton has further reason to celebrate, as 2016 sees the company celebrate 50 years of UK manufacturing, with the Bristol-based facility now an important design and manufacturing base in Fulton’s global network, which includes production facilities in the USA and China.
Howarth explained that Fulton concentrated on steam boiler manufacturer for many years, but the company is now a major solutions-based provider specialising in fully-packaged, ready-to-ship steam, hot water and thermal fluid heat transfer systems.
“We put great emphasis on providing sales and application advice and a full commissioning and after sales service, to a growing customer base in numerous sectors including food processing, brewing and distilling,” Howarth added.