July 26, 2016 Flame Catcher

Volume 9 | Issue 3

For over 70 years, Fireye has manufactured quality combustion control products for both the commercial and industrial markets. With more tha

Tucked away in the small New England town of Derry, N.H., where poet Robert Frost once lived and U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard was born, is the main manufacturing facility and headquarters of the nationally recognized Fireye. It may seem a somewhat “quiet” spot for a leading-edge manufacture of burner safety control products and combustion control systems, but it suits Fireye just fine.

“We have sales offices worldwide to back us up,” says John Devine, vice president of sales and marketing for Fireye. Fireye relies on its ISO: 9001-certified, 67,000-square-foot facility to create its sought-after products that provide the highest levels of safety integrity and precision control available on the market today. “Our manufacturing center is truly a state-of-the-art facility for designing, fabricating, assembling and testing electronic devices,” says Devine. “Over the years we have constantly reinvested in manufacturing capability, as well as office systems, to ensure that we keep pace with new technologies and global competition.”

Fireye, a member of the UTC Fire and Security group of companies, provides state-of-the art commercial and industrial flame safeguard controls products that are used in schools, factories, petrochemical plants, and other large buildings throughout the world. These controls include commercial and industrial flame scanners to monitor the presence or absence of flame in a controlled combustion chamber. Fireye also manufactures automatic and semi-automatic controls, which monitor other safety devices and control the safe introduction of fuel into the combustion chamber.

“Our products are applied across a wide range of commercial and industrial applications, throughout the world,” says Devine. “We may have a steam raising application in schools, airports and process plants or a need for multiple fired systems in petrochemical, paper and power utility plants. Specialized products provide high safety integrity and energy efficiency. In the field of combustion, our 70-plus years of industry experience guarantees the right solution, tailored perfectly to meet your needs.”

First to the Fire
For Fireye, it’s been a history of firsts. The company had its beginnings in the 1930s when it devised a commercial/industrial electronic flame safeguard control. The photoelectric device was designed to detect the presence of an oil flame in less than a second.

As high technology slowly won acceptance in boiler rooms and plants across the country, the company continued to expand product capabilities. During World War II and after, the company developed a wide variety of sensor technologies that ultimately found their way into innovative flame safeguard devices. It was the first to use a photosensitive device in 1945.

Then, in 1953, Fireye introduced the first precision, automatic timing control device and by the early 1950s, Fireye products had become an integral part of modern controlled combustion systems.

The company’s pioneering tradition has been renewed many times over the decades. Fireye was the first to develop infrared scanners to monitor both gas and oil flames, the first to develop a scanner that discriminated between signals from adjacent burners, the first to create a completely solid-state programming control. “We have recently set new standards again with a brand new family of micro-processor-based, flame safeguards that communicate in five different languages,” says Devine.

New Eyes on the Fire
Continuing its history of innovation, Fireye has introduced the next generation of industrial multi-burner flame scanners. Based on a built-in microprocessor, the revolutionary Paragon™ Integrated Flame Scanner collects data about flames in multiple, optical dimensions. “One of the biggest trends we’re seeing in the industry today, is the switch towards integrated products,” says Devine. “Our system traditionally consisted of a scanner and separate amplifier. Now they’re true one piece systems and offer superb features very competitively with even higher safety integrity levels.”

Fireye is also pleased to offer its new BurnerLogix Integrated Flame Safeguard, specifically designed for single burner applications. The new BurnerLogix series meets and exceeds the operational, safety and reliability, requirements demanded by the many varied applications in the market and has been fully certified by worldwide approval organizations.

The Fireye BurnerLogix is a microprocessor-based burner management control system designed to provide the proper burner sequencing, ignition and flame monitoring protection on automatically ignited oil, gas, and combination fuel burners without size restriction. Optional key pad/display types are available that offer maximum brightness using vacuum fluorescent technology or low cost using LCD technology. In conjunction with limit and operating controls, BurnerLogix programs the burner/ blower motor, ignition and fuel valves to provide for proper and safe burner operation. The BurnerLogix system allows for fewer programmer modules to inventory, reduced downtime, pinpoint diagnostics, added safety during idle or off periods and easily adapts into most building management systems.

In the summer of 2006, Fireye will formally release the Paragon Flame Scanner, which allows the management and measurement of flame. The system offers optical analysis of flame temperature, amplitude, frequency, intensity as well as safety, in one integrated package.

Hot Property
Fireye maintains 20 sales offices worldwide and ships its products regularly throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. The company recently closed its first mainland Japan project where it will install flame scanners at a chemical company. “The ability of our staff to identify customer problems and to provide cost-effective solutions is what makes us successful,” says Devine. “And the commitment of Fireye employees is what makes our principles and visions turn into reality in the marketplace and for our customers. Much of the strength of our staff is based on experience. The people who helped build the company’s leadership position have stayed with us, maintaining long-term relationships with clients. We are also proud that our people are active on safety standards committees and are highly respected in the industry.”

The future for Fireye means more focus, according to Devine. “This is all we do. We are the flame detection experts, if you will. This is our specialty. And we want to specialize even more. We currently offer our expertise in primary safety systems but we want to become even more involved with flame analysis techniques, efficiency systems and field support and offer our customers as much as we can in that area.”

Over the decades, Fireye has remained a vigorous and independent industry leader. As its history of “firsts” attests, Fireye is dedicated to a constant process of innovation, and a long-term effort to provide more reliable and more capable products. “Our brand of customer service is based on constant communication. We know our company depends on satisfied customers, and we listen carefully to what the market tells us. At Fireye, we take quality personally and professionally,” says Devine. “In an industry primarily concerned with control and safety, quality manufacturing at Fireye is far more than a buzzword. Our reputation stands on a continuing record of reliability.”

Subscribe to Industry Today