Steam boilers are not what they once were;
Scotch fire
tube boilers. The steam boilersdesign remained much the
same and its qualities of ruggedness, reliability, ease of maintenance, and
ability to stand abuse made it a very popular steam boiler in
the marine field. However there was a realization that
advanced steam boiler designs with greater generating capacity, higher
pressure, and increased efficiency were needed to meet the changing
requirements brought about by the development of turbine propulsion machinery.
The marine engineers then began to adapt various types of
water tube
steam boilers to fit into the restricted space available for installations
on board steamships. It was also realized that marine boilers
would have to be designed to burn efficiently whatever fuel oils would be
available.
Although the steam boilers are basically the same, water
boiling cauldrons, modern steam boilers are different in
details, especially concerning the control systems.
Marine steam
boilers today are provided with automatic surveillance and they operate
without supervision 24 hour per day.
Just as the need for increased steaming capacities within fixed space and
weight limitations spurred the development of the earlier water-tube steam
boiler, so did the same need precipitate the advance to boiler designs of the
bent-tube
type.
The term bent-tube boiler covers a wide range of boiler
designs characterized by the ability to raise steam pressure within a short
period of time. This means smaller tube diameters, fewer headers, increased
furnace ratings and wider application of water-cooled furnaces. The boilers of
this category also became known as multi-drum boiler type,
express boiler type, or by various other names corresponding to the designers
of particular arrangements.With advanced designs available for naval
steamships, it was quite logical to utilize adoptions of those designs for high
powered passenger steamships.
These pages are not meant to be a steam boiler instruction book whatsoever;
it's just a few words about some things that most technicians already know lots
about.
©2009 Lars Josefsson Steamesteem in a computerized world
Marine steam boilers today and yesterday.
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