Can removable insulation blankets keep pipe contents from freezing ?

Removable insulation blankets are great at managing heat. Be it by lowering the ambient heat in an engine room, protecting workers from hot surfaces, or shielding pipe contents from cold external temperatures, removable insulation covers are often the solution of choice where heat must be managed, but permanent insulation is not feasible. 

Gate Valve with Glycol Tracing,,
 wrapped with Removable Insulation Blanket

But there is one thing that removable insulation blankets cannot do - they cannot add heat. "We often get asked, particularly in cold weather applications, if our blankets can keep pipe contents or components from freezing", said Brett Herman, Firwin`s VP of Sales & Engineering. "The answer is that while we can contain heat and delay heat loss by sheltering pipe components from cold external temperatures, our insulation blankets can`t add any heat that isn`t already there."

Where insulation blankets can help, however, is where companies have some sort of heat tracing on their piping, and they want to minimize the amount of heat lost to the environment, and thus maximize the efficiency of their heat tracing.

Heat Tracing Challenges

"Companies, particularly in the oil and gas industry, and often in other industries such as mining, chemical, and food processing, use heat tracing to keep pipe or container contents from freezing. In cold temperatures, this heat tracing, if left un-insulated, becomes much less effective. Firwin has done a number of applications in this area, covering the component and the heat tracing, increasing efficiency and lowering the heat that escapes to the environment", added Brett.

Like other removable insulation blanket applications, a properly designed blanket is key to ensuring that the heat tracing is properly insulated. "There are various type of heat tracing in the marketplace today - steam, glycol, hot  oil, and electric", said Rael Herman, Firwin's VP of Production & New Product Development.

"In some instances, the entire component in covered by a 'bolt-on heat jacket, changing the entire geometry of the part". What they all have in common is the need to be wrapped tightly, so as to minimize the amount of heat that is lost to the environment. The challenge, when it comes to insulation blankets, is to design a blanket that will account for the sometime difficult geometries and penetration access points that often come hand in hand with heat tracing", said Rael.

Firwin Blanket custom designed to fit glycol penetrations

  

Other Solutions

What about situations where the customer is not familiar with heat tracing, or where heat tracing is not a viable option ? "We have done applications where we have incorporated a heat source into the insulation cover (see previous article on "pizza blankets")", notes Brett. "Regardless of who supplies the heat tracing, what's important is ensuring that the the insulation blankets are designed in such a way as to tightly cover the components in question, while allowing for penetration points that typically accompany tracing of valves and similar components".

For more information on removable insulation blankets and heat tracing, please contact Firwin.

Firwin FireBlanket 2000 Can Take the Heat: It’s Proven to Withstand Temperatures as High as 2000-Degrees-Fahrenheit!

In our last blog post, we reviewed how the Firwin FireBlanket 2000 protects industrial safety valves and actuators.
We explained how a removable insulation blanket designed to protect safety valves is different from the standard insulation blankets you’ll find in industrial settings. In this blog post, we’ll talk more about the design of this type of fire blanket and explain how strong and durable it is (and why it needs to be this way!).

The Firwin FireBlanket 2000 is designed to keep the heat and fire away from the part. Typically, removable insulation blankets are composed of three layers:

1. the inner surface
2. the insulation material that rests on the inner surface
3. the outer protective cover.

In most cases, the removable insulation blanket’s inner surface is the “hot face” that comes in direct contact with the hot component. However, the Firwin FireBlanket 2000’s outer protective cover is the “hot face” and it needs to withstand extremely high temperatures. The FireBlanket is working “in reverse,” in layman’s terms: The outer surface and insulation are protecting the part from the heat, and the outer protective cover needs to withstand the very high heat of a fire.

There are also other variables that come into play in a fire safety situation at an industrial plant, and time is a critical factor. The valve or actuator being protected by the FireBlanket will need to function and operate properly to allow enough time for the operator to shut down a line. In situations like this, a FireBlanket’s outer cover may deteriorate too quickly if it’s not manufactured to meet certain fire standards. It’s also important to install the FireBlanket so that the component is properly protected – an improperly installed FireBlanket could impede the blanket’s ability to protect the component in case of fire.

The Firwin FireBlanket 2000 easily passed the UL rapid rise fire standard test (UL1709) where it was placed in a special compartment and blasted with 2000-degrees-Fahrenheit temperatures for 30 minutes. The fire blanket – including its outer protective – remained fully intact throughout the test, with no signs of deterioration at all. This proves that the Firwin FireBlanket 2000 can definitely take the heat!

A Fire Blanket Designed to Protect Industrial Safety Valves is Definitely Worth the Investment

You’ve probably heard about fire blankets that are designed to protect people in their homes or in their workplaces. These types of fire blankets are commonly used to extinguish and smother fires or as portable safety devices to wrap around people as they run for safety. But, have you heard about fire blankets that are designed to protect industrial safety valves and equipment?

Fire blankets designed to protect industrial safety valves are a type of insulation blanket, but they differ from standard insulation blankets used in industrial settings. Standard blankets are meant to insulate a part to maintain a high level of heat inside the part, or to keep heat away from the outside environment. For instance, in many industries, machine and equipment parts must be kept at the right temperature for the part to function properly; conversely, heat must be contained and kept away from the surrounding area, be it for personnel protection or protecting nearby heat sensitive components. However, fire blankets designed to go over a part – typically a safety-related part, such as a gate valve or an actuator – are designed to keep the heat and fire away from the part. These types of fire blankets are needed in many industries, including the oil and gas industry.

A fire blanket that protects a valve, an actuator or another part from fire and heat is a critical industrial safety tool. Gate valves and actuators function as safety mechanisms in industrial settings. In the event of any type of fire, including chemical fires, these actuators perform a safety shutdown to reduce fire spread and prevent or minimize disaster. The fire blanket is designed to go over a valve or part to protect its covering long enough for safety procedures to function properly. Designed to withstand a fire for up to 30 minutes, this allows enough time for an operator to actuate the safety function on a line and to perform a shutdown to keep the fire under control and to minimize potential damage.

The fire blanket we offer at Firwin works to protect industrial valves and actuators so that they can do their job in a critical safety situation, and they’re proven to work: Our fire blanket for industrial safety valves and parts was tested in a UL rapid rise fire standard test (UL1709) where it was placed in a special compartment and blasted with 2000-degrees-Fahrenheit temperatures for 30 minutes. The fire blanket remained intact throughout the test.

A fire blanket designed to protect industrial safety valves and equipment is definitely worth the investment! To learn more about the fire blanket, read the article Firwin FireBlanket 2000 in our e-newsletter.