Boiler Blog | Nationwide Boiler Inc.

Nationwide Boiler is known as being an innovative leader in the rental boiler industry. Over fifty years ago we pioneered the mounting of a 24,000 lb/hr package watertube boiler to a highway-legal trailer, and followed with many other firsts including the world’s largest trailer-mounted saturated and superheated steam boilers (125,000 lb/hr and 110,000 lb/hr, respectively).

In this age of digital technology and pandemic isolation requirements, Nationwide Boiler’s control division, Pacific Combustion Engineering, realized the need for virtual factory acceptance testing (FAT). An FAT is an essential element of the testing and acceptance of new critical control systems. The main goal of this test is to prove and certify performance built for a specific application and ensure all design requirements are attained.

Pacific Combustion’s new test gear consists of a 19” HMI that replaces toggle switches, indicating lights, potentiometers, and analog gauges. A PLC drives relays and consists of contacts that can be configured for the voltage that is required for input simulation. Outputs are displayed via selectable 120vac and 24vdc terminals. Analog 4-20ma inputs are selectable as either loop or self-powered.

During the virtual FAT, a web portal is accessible by the client through an audio/video link to the testing, and the client can actually operate the test rig HMI screen from their location. Links are also furnished to the burner management / combustion control system PLC and HMI.

This is a truly unique innovation at a time where travel can be difficult, providing an alternative to the traditional FAT and allowing business to continue even in heightened times like a global pandemic.

For more details on our virtual FATs, be sure to check out our upcoming feature in Process Heating Magazine. We will post the direct link as soon as it's available. And be sure to give Pacific Combustion Engineering a call to assist with your next control system upgrade. 360-335-1443

Nationwide Boiler is fortunate to have closed on another record year in 2022 for rental and sales volume. Looking back at our customer base, it is extraordinary to see how many industries and manufacturing processes utilize steam. We worked with customers from roughly 15 different industries to supply reliable temporary boilers, new and used boilers and related equipment for permanent applications, the CataStak™ SCR system for single-digit NOx performance, and custom control systems and fuel skids from our Controls Division in Washougal.

The food processing industry pulled ahead this year as our largest industry served. Steam is used for many purposes in the food and beverage industry including heat, sterilization, food processing and preparation of sauces/flavors, canning, cooking, curing, and drying. We have annual rental customers in the food processing industry to support their seasonal increased steam demand needs. We also had a large number of projects with chemical & manufacturing companies, pulp and paper facilities, and oil & gas refineries. Steam is used for process heating, drying or concentrating, steam cracking and distillation in these industries. Other prominent customer groups included energy and power generation, colleges and universities, aerospace, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and textile mills.

In terms of geographical location, Nationwide Boiler supplied equipment to customers in locations spanning more than half of the states in the country, but also to customers outside of the U.S. As we like to say, Nationwide Boiler is not just ‘nationwide’, but ‘worldwide’, and this year we had the pleasure of supplying equipment to customers in Canada, Mexico, China, South Korea and Israel. Plus, we had our first equipment sale to a refinery in Kazakhstan - two (2) 75,000 lb/hr, 750 psi high-pressure saturated steam package boilers that will be utilized for process heating needs.

Steam continues to be a powerful source of heat and energy and is utilized in a wide variety of industries all across the globe. Nationwide Boiler is proud to be ending on a high note again this year, as we strive to continue our legacy of providing reliable temporary and permanent boiler solutions with “...Integrity, Dependability, and Real Customer Service.”

Check out our December 2022 edition of the Steamlines Newsletter to learn more about what's happening at Nationwide Boiler Inc.