What does Fives North American Combustion do for the heat-treat industry?
Fives North American Combustion, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, has been delivering combustion solutions for more than 100 years. Our product portfolio includes burners, valves, flow control equipment, fuel trains, and control panels, serving a wide range of industrial heating applications.
We make all our products here in Cleveland, where we have our own 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.
For the heat treat industry, one of our key strengths is our extensive expertise in temperature uniformity and AMS 2750 compliance. We understand how to design combustion systems that maximize furnace performance, including optimized burner placement to achieve the highest levels of circulation throughout the work zone.
We have a new product developed a few years ago called the North American CertiFireTM.
This automated control device streamlines the tuning process by modulating all burners to achieve the highest level of temperature uniformity throughout the furnace.
What puts your aftermarket spare parts division above your competitors?
We offer a broad range of replacement parts and components to support our customers’ operations. While our burners are the most visible, they’re also known for their durability and long service life. All our products are manufactured in Cleveland, which gives us greater control over production and key elements of the supply chain. For products such as valves and control components, our local manufacturing capabilities allow us to respond quickly and efficiently, helping customers minimize downtime and keep their operations running smoothly.
How does your way of working with clients set you apart?
We have a centralized, territorial sales force, based throughout the United States who work directly with our customers rather than through distributors. Our sales force is made up of trained engineers who take a consultative approach, focusing on understanding each customers’ process, challenges, and operational goals.
Rather than simply providing quotes, our team works to identify the root causes of performance issues and evaluate their overall thermal process. In the heat treat industry, this includes assessing heating requirements, temperature uniformity objectives, and compliance needs. By taking a holistic view of the operation, our team can develop solutions that take the whole manufacturing process into account, not just the combustion system.
How does your proactive approach reduce unplanned downtime and increase equipment availability?
This is where we’re trying to generate a more proactive approach for furnace maintenance and performance. Solutions like our North American CertiFireTM are designed to provide greater visibility into equipment operation, and we’re continuing to develop advanced controls and monitoring technologies.
The technology, coupled with our field service team out of Cleveland, allows us to service equipment, commission the equipment, and ensure its operating at top-notch performance.
By providing customers with better insights into the condition and performance of their machines, we help them address issues before they lead to unplanned downtime, allowing maintenance to be scheduled rather than reactive.
We are in the process of drastically reducing our lead times and improving responsiveness. By maintaining inventory of critical spare parts, we’re able to support customers quickly when they need us most.
How does your remote assistance and monitoring system work for your clients?
We have the ability and staff internally and remotely log into customers’ control panels and see what they may be having problems with and tune some of their problems live rather than having to wait for us to come to site to diagnose it.
We keep our network separate from their network to keep internet security separate.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention that we didn’t talk about?
We have more than 100 years of experience designing and manufacturing combustion solutions, yet the heat treat market is an area where we’re only beginning to expand our presence.
We’ve identified a growing need for combustion expertise, particularly in areas such as temperature uniformity, efficiency, reliability, and compliance.
That’s what is driving our increased focus on the industry. From our participation in major heat treat events to the development of new technologies tailored to these applications, we’re committed to helping customers solve challenges and optimize furnace performance.
More info www.fivesgroup.com/energy-combustion
