Thermal Insulation for Portable and Standby Generators
For many applications, thermal insulation is an important feature to have in portable and standby generators. Sufficient thermal insulation offers numerous benefits, including reduced energy costs, protection for workers, and increased longevity of equipment. To meet your heat insulation needs, we offer top-of-the-line Tech Shield™ and Tech Shield Sleeve™ solutions to keep your systems and workers protected.
Importance of Thermal Insulation for Power Generation Equipment
There are certain standards regarding insulation, known as UL standards, that many facilities must meet. UL standards make it necessary for air compressor enclosures or power generators to remain within an acceptable surface temperature range. The right temperature level helps keep door panels cool and subsequently protects workers from burns. To help ensure that power generation equipment meets UL standards, the UL 2200 listing details the standards for the design, manufacture, and overall performance of stationary generators.
Manufacturers who meet this standard will be able to increase their products’ value while building their reputation as a leader in safety among their customers.
Employee Protection
One of the most important benefits of proper thermal insulation is the ability to keep workers safe from contact burn injuries. Thermal insulation helps to maintain a safe surface temperature while minimizing heat loss and gain. In applications using hot insulation, the surface temperature cannot exceed 140°F, and ideally should be below 125°F. Keeping surface temperatures below these thresholds can help prevent potentially serious burn injuries.
Energy Saving
Thermal insulation that meets UL standards can also reduce energy costs in several ways. For example, bare hot pipes ranging from 300°F to 400°F are expected to experience still air heat loss of 1,000 to 2,000 Btu/hr-ft2. However, sufficient thermal insulation can help reduce that heat loss to approximately 100 Btu/hr-ft2. Using the right equipment, cold side temps can remain up to 70% cooler than the surface temperature of the exhaust pipe. Proper insulation can also reduce vibrations resulting from airflow and resonance.
In addition, the heat produced from exhaust pipes can cure proprietary cords, which helps prevent wraps from unraveling regardless of the damage done to fibers due to environmental factors. This means that even if rocks and other debris cause damage to fibers or if hose clamps detach from wraps, sleeves will stay intact.
Thermal Solutions for Portable and Standby Generators
Depending on your application’s specific requirements, Technicon Acoustics can provide several solutions to help you meet them.
For some applications, acoustic material on doors may be parallel to heated exhaust pipes, which may melt the material. To help mitigate this, we suggest you reduce the thickness of composite materials to accommodate the installation of our Tech Shield™ product, which can help block heat from your exhaust pipes and protect acoustic materials.
In some enclosures, exhaust pipes may extend from the inside of an engine to the exterior. In these instances, we recommend using our Tech Shield Sleeve™ to maintain a consistent temperature for the pipe while keeping its internal components protected. Since exhaust pipes are one of the main sources of heat in enclosures, insulation for these sources is vital.
Tech Shield™ Features and Benefits
Our Tech Shield™ product can protect surrounding materials and equipment from nearby heat sources of up to 1,000°F with a distance of as little as 1″. The product’s overall thickness of 0.125″ also enables installation in areas with tight space requirements. Other benefits include natural fire retardant core material, minimal tooling costs, brief production lead times. Tech Shield™ also comes with a high-temperature PSA with EZ Peel liner that allows for installation on a variety of substrates.
Tech Shield Sleeve™
The Tech Shield Sleeve™ features a braided sleeve of highly texturized fiber and cure in place structural cords. The fiber element in this sleeve provides sufficient exhaust insulation to retain heat for filtering particulate and reduce exhaust pipe surface temperatures, which keeps nearby materials and machinery consistently safe from damage. Once the structural cords cure in place, which takes a few minutes following exposure to hot exhaust pipe surfaces, the wrap will remain permanently secure.
Thermal Insulation Solutions from Technicon Acoustics
At Technicon Acoustics, we are dedicated to helping you find the best thermal insulation solutions. We make use of the most up-to-date technologies and industry knowledge, and do all of our work in a modern, state-of-the-art facility. For more information, or to get started on your thermal insulation solution, contact us or request a quote today.