Jeff Cleveland on mon 8 jan 07
Hello all,
Long time lurker here with a gas kiln question/problem...
I'm the maintenance tech for the Art dept. at CWU in Ellensburg WA.
I am curious if there are any gas kilns on the market in the 16cf size
range that are UL listed.
We are having major difficulties getting our project manager to sign off
on the installation of a Olsen 16cf kiln kit which our previous ceramics
professor purchased and built w/ the help of a couple of advanced
students. When we asked for gas line installation the whole project was
stopped because the safety system wasn't sufficent to please our project
manager.
This is a quote from an email to our chair from the project manager:
>the areas of safety concern we have with the Olsen Kiln:
>1. The gas valve assembly consists of "off the shelf" pilot thermal
couple controls that have no underwriter's approval (i.e., >UL or AGA).
>2. Thermal couple proof of pilot flame is slow acting compared to other
technology (ultraviolet or infrared light sensors) >commonly used with
large burners. Also, thermal couples can be "fooled" by hot surfaces
when in fact the pilot light is >out. A kiln often has hot radiating
surfaces.
>3. There are two burner arrays consisting of three burners each that
operate on a single thermal couple control per array. >The thermal
couple only proves there is pilot flame at the first of the three
burners per array. This creates a real >possibility that the pilot
could be off for two burners resulting in raw unburned gas entering the
hot kiln. If this occurs, >there is a real possibility of an explosion
in the kiln.
We originaly spent several hundred dollars more to get the more advanced
safety system from Olsen, with three BASO valves/pilots (as there are
actually three manifolds not two like the above email qoute states)
instead of just one, and it appears this was a total waste of money.
It has been made clear that the only way we will be able to use the
Olsen 16 kit is if there are infrared or UV sensors on all seven MR750
burners! Does anyone out there know of any other installations like
this? It appears that seven "fire-eyes" or other instant flame
detection systems will be way out of our budget ($5000-$7000). Another
technician from our IET dept is researching a system that they use on
thier aluminum crucible furnace that uses an element to detect flame
which might be cheaper and still meet some underwriters specs. but i
feel this is a longshot. We already agreed to moving the kiln outside
to a fenced courtyard area to try and keep costs down and saftey at a
premium (ceiling penitration and re-doing ventilation infrastucture in
our kiln room would have been very, very expensive). It was stated that
using BASO valves is just to dangerous, even outside.
The chair of the dept. has come to these two conclusions:
1) Find a flame saftey control system that will meet the needs of our
project manager for ~$2000 or less or,
2) Surplus the brand new, never fired, Olsen kiln (which we paid ~$6000
for) and try to find a kiln that is already equiped w/ this extensive
flame saftey control system.
So, are there any recomendations for smaller, perferably updraft, gas
kilns with extensive flame safte controls that are either UL or AGA
listed?
If not, do you know of any other solutions to our delema? We currently
only have a large baliey gas kiln which doesn't get filled more than a
couple of times per quarter. This dosen't give the students much time
to experiment w/ glazes and other variables which is just one reason why we
would like
to have a smaller high fire kiln.
Thanks in advance,
Ivor and Olive Lewis on wed 10 jan 07
Dear Jeff Cleveland,=20
Seems as though "Management" have placed you between the rock and the a =
hard place.
I can understand the bind of not using gas but the quick and simple =
answer is to mothball the Olsen and go for one, or several, electric =
kilns that give your students a chance to have regular firings. Then =
start fundraising for the excess dollars to bring the Olsen up to local =
safety specifications.
Think strategically, work tactically and achieve victory.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
South Australia.
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