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Three Dozen Chances for Gain 



Editor's Note 



The foUowin" paper was read by F. F. Chandler, a manufacturer of boilers and engines at Indianapolis. Ind., betor.- 

 the annual meeting of the National "Veneer and Panel Manufacturers' Association, held at Chicago, December S and 9. 



After having spent a good many years in studying, designing, 

 selling and installing power producing plants I have come to the 

 general conclusion that this department of most manufacturing 

 institutions is the most neglected and is more wasteful in proportion 

 than any other. Take you, as veneer manufacturers for instance. 

 How many of you can truthfully say that you know as much about 

 the correct theory and modern practice regarding your power plants 

 as you do about the correct theory and practice of the operation ol 

 these other machines in your factories which actually fabricate your 

 product? Is it not true that you are constantly figuring on the 

 time when you can afford to buy a better veneer saw or a veneer 

 dryer, or a better knife grinder, mortiser, tenoner, or what not? 

 Are you not constantly figuring on how you can route your material 

 through your factory to better advantage. These things are all 

 proper subjects for your best thoughts. Please don't think that 

 I hold the opinion that the power plant can possibly be the most 

 important part of your business, but it is primarily a very important 

 thing as yoii well know. A few minutes stopping of the machinery 

 totals up to several hours of lost time -when all the employes who are 

 made idle are considered. 



How many of you are operating entirely on refuse matter pro- 

 duced by your mUls? Would you like to? I know the answer is 

 yes without asking you to speak it. It may not be possible for all 

 of you to operate entirely on waste matter because the waste matter 

 you produce may not have the proper number of heat units to produce 

 the power you need, but if you are buying any coal at aU would it 

 not be interesting and profitable to you to buy less than you are now- 

 purchasing? Even in plants where slabs are practically used along 

 with sawdust it should be profitable to save the slabs and sell them 

 for fuel if you can thereby produce a little more revenue. 



To make a long story short, if you are interested in reducing 

 or eliminating your coal biU or in reducing the amount of salable 

 wood which you are now burning, then you should be interested in 

 some of the things I can and will tell you. 



The whole subject of economical power production can be summed 

 up in three words, "Stop the leaks." AU losses which can possibly 

 occur in the production of power can be attributed either to loss 

 of heat or to mechanical friction or slippage of pumps. The study 

 of those places where the greatest amount of loss can occur is, of 

 course, the most profitable. Without any hesitation I can say that 

 the greatest source of loss in most plants is in the uneconom- 

 ical way that steam is generated. The next greatest source of loss 

 is in not utilizing the heat value in the steam exhausted from the 

 engines. Losses to a greater or a lesser degree are to be found in 

 many other places and I will therefore number each point showing 

 how each becomes a chance for gain. 



Proper Booting of Steam Important 

 In these days when many central electric light stations are offering 

 current for power purposes at very low figures you have a very much 

 better reason for looking upon your power plants as an investment 

 rather than an expense, because you have a waste product in a form 

 which can be used as fuel for making power. Therefore you should 

 strive to keep your ledger account for purchased fuel or electric cur- 

 rent as low as possible. These accounts can sometimes be eliminated 

 by making your power plants sufficiently economical to make much 

 expenditure unnecessary. 



It is somewhat diflScult for me to talk to you in a way which all 

 of you wiU understand for some of you undoubtedly can generate 

 sufiBcient power with your waste products while others cannot. 



For those who do have a purchased fuel or power account let me 

 Bay that the production of heat and the routing of it without wasting 

 it 'through your furnaces and boilers and pipes and engines, etc., 

 is just Hs important an item to you as the proper routing of the 



—go- 



material through your factory. You are all interested in the eco- 

 nomical routing of the material and you know something about how 

 it can be accomplished, but how many of you know about the eco- 

 nomical routing of heat and about making it produce all the work 

 possible ? 



Heat Loss in Fctrnace, Stack and Piping 

 For those who are interested in the reduction of coal cost, cur- 

 rent cost, or in the increase of salable wood, the following points 

 can be looked to with great benefit. 



To go back to heat loss in furnace and stack. For the kind of fuel 

 to be burned a study of the best form of furnace and setting will 

 produce profitable results. Strange as it may seem to you the type 

 of boiler is not important so far as economy is concerned, but the 

 design of the furnace, the floor space, and initial cost of installation 

 is. A correct type of furnace for the fuel to be burned wiU pro- 

 duce good results with any type of boiler. The problem is to pro- 

 duce the required amount of steam with the least possible expenditure 

 of fuel. The power house equipment which should have attention 

 to get this result is: Eocking and dumping, or hollow blast grate; 

 down draft furnaces; Dutch ovens and other forms of special fur- 

 nace construction; automatic stokers; induced, forced, or balanced 

 draft; well-designed stacks; superheaters; economizers; feed water 

 purification; soot removing equipment; mechanical scale removers; 

 feed water heaters; boiler room instruments; hot wells; economical 

 pumps; coal handling equipment; ash handling equipment. 



Hero are eighteen places where gains can be made, and I have not 

 yet gotten out of the boiler room. 



Now comes the piping suggestions as follows: Good pipe covering 

 for both steam and exhaust lines; steam separators or drip pockets; 

 steam traps; tight gaskets; correct piping arrangements. 



Before I leave the points which relate to piping, I wish to say that 

 the only leaks in a plant which can actually be observed by the 

 naked eye are those which permit the blowing of steam caused by bad 

 gaskets and packing. I>o not think, however, that you have saved all 

 the leaks when you have stopped these. 



Money in Exhaust Steam 



In the engine room we- have saving possibilities in economical 

 steam engines or turbines; jet, surface and barometric condensers; 

 economical generators; well arranged switch boards. 



I have already stated that by far the greatest loss in power pro- 

 duction results from incorrect methods in the production of steam, 

 and that the next place where the greatest gain can be made is in 

 utilizing to the fullest extent the heat that remains in the exhaust 

 steam. 



In order that you may more fully realize the value of this point, 

 and why you should not let a cubic foot of steam go to waste into 

 the atmosphere, I wish to tell you briefly about how heat is dis- 

 tributed in converting water into steam and vice versa. 



To convert well water at say 60° F. temperature into steam at 

 100 lbs. pressure, requires 1,157 British thermal units per pound 

 of steam, a British thermal unit being a measure of heat value just 

 as a pound is a measure of weight. Now then when this pound of 

 steam is expanded through the engine or turbine and then exhausts 

 into the atmosphere it contains a total of 1,119 of the original 

 1,157 units put into it. So you see the actual work done in the 

 engine is done with a very little heat loss. When the steam ex- 

 hausted is cooled sufficiently so that it again returns to water it 

 gives up 965 of the total 1,119 British thermal units in it which 

 you will immediately see is a very large per cent and the water of 

 condensation resulting is at a temperature of 212°. 



Now as a very large per cent (in this case eighty-five per cent) 

 of the original heat value put in the steam is blown out of your 

 exhaust pipe, can 't you see that if your steam is costing you any- 



