Spirax Sarco

Spirax-Sarco provides solutions for the design, manufacture, and maintenance of steam management systems for commercial and industrial environments.

A well-designed management system offers the pharmaceutical industry effective provision of hot water and steam, with efficient running costs.

The company’s steam systems are easy-to-use, efficiently constructed, and can create high-temperatures using a clean and pure heating method. Applications in the industry include assisting with good manufacturing practice (GMP) compliance, and reducing downtime.

The steam system could also decrease product rejection due to unreliable sanitation processes.

Spirax Sarco's BT6-B sanitary balanced pressure thermostatic steam trap extracts condensate from clean steam systems.

The FTS14 is a ball float trap, which is suitable for steam systems up to 14bar.

The STERI-TROL is a clean service control valve, which has a two-port angle pattern.

The EasiHeat unit will deliver rust-free hot water at a stable temperature when supplied with clean, dry steam.

Accurate temperature control, humidification, and sterilisation for medical equipment

Spirax-Sarco’s range contains products for every part of a steam system, which can be used for accurate temperature control, equipment sterilisation, and humidification.

Its products are made of a polished 316L stainless steel construction and have industry standard connections. These include engineered boiler controls and systems, condensate pumps, flow metering, and compressed air.

The steam systems also use pipeline and steam ancillaries, isolation valves, and steam traps to provide clean steam solutions.

This extensive range contains individually innovative designs, which work together as part of a new dedicated facility, as an optimisation or upgrade for an existing system, or as a replacement to maintain performance.

Its standard unit Easiheat™ has a capacity to deliver 1,800kW, which produces 1,800kW of process hot water occupying minimal plant floorspace.

Clean steam sterilisation of medical equipment

Spirax-Sarco’s systems sterilise medical equipment through clean steam. The sterilisation system includes autoclaves, which allow for moist-heat levels to be maintained in high-pressure environments.

This works together with steam traps to prevent blockages due to condensate, as well as an arrangement of isolating valves, which are opened and closed for sterilisation and drainage of individual items or a product line.

The STERI-TROL clean service control valve is a pneumatically-operated isolating valve, which has a 3A’s and EHEDG design, as well as a 2-port angle pattern.

This US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved valve can operate at 170°C and has an industry-standard control interface and connections. Its angled design allows it to self-drain and is mechanically polished to 0.4µ to make a smooth finish, which is crevice-free and comes with a surface finish certification.

Steam injection humidifiers

Hot air from the handling units may require humidification to ensure that it remains in the strict health and environmental regulation boundaries required for production.

Spirax-Sarco’s steam injection humidifiers maintain a standard relative humidity level measuring between 40% and 60%. It has simplified piping and duct requirements and can be installed compactly for when many lances are required.

The system has low noise pollution, but a high output and its steam ejection velocity are designed for efficient air-steam mixing.

Steam traps, monitoring and maintenance

Spirax-Sarco’s steam traps discharge condensate and air from steam-heat systems. They are specifically designed for drainage in hygienic and clean steam units.

Types of steam trap the company supplies include balanced-pressure, ball float, bimetallic, and fixed-temperature, as well as inverted-bucket, sealed-steam, and thermodynamics.

In conventional assemblies, it is common for plants to be shut down for maintenance, meaning a loss of production time. However, Spirax-Sarco’s PC3000 and PC4000 models can be installed quickly as its strainer, steam trap connection, and isolation valves are placed together in one unit. This design allows for maintenance without breaking the steam line.

Spirax-Sarco also provides specialised technical services to the plant steam operations including steam quality testing.