Specialty Flanged Inline Heaters

High-temperature & high-pressure custom process heating solutions for precise and durable performance.

The TUTCO Advantage

TUTCO SureHeat Specialty Flanged Inline (SFI) heaters offer superior performance over conventional sheathed (“tubular” or “immersion”) style heaters because they are designed specifically for air and inert gas applications, including hydrogen, CO_2, steam, and syngas. Our proprietary SERPENTINE™ technology facilitates a very high power watt density creating a compact overall heater design. SFI heaters can be as much as 8-12X smaller than equivalent tubular/immersion designs. (see the diagram below) With this advantage, less space is required.  With a faster heat-up and cool-down ramp time SFI electric air heaters are more cost effective to operate. Whether for a research test stand, factory production line, or key component in a product or thermal energy storage system, our Specialty Flanged Inline heater and controls are the right process heating solution for the job.

Key Features:

• Designed for High Temperature Process Heat Applications using Air or Inert Gases, including hydrogen, CO2, steam, and syngas. 
• Compact in Size and Weight Compared to Competitive Immersion Solutions
• Faster Temperature Ramp Rates are more Cost Effective to Operate
• Electric Control Panels Engineered Specifically for Each Application

TUTCO SureHeat understands the importance of producing custom heater solutions that deliver safe and superior trouble-free performance. Electric process inline air heaters have ANSI standard pipe and flanges for heating high-pressure air or inert gases to 1750°F (950°C) and higher. Our patented Serpentine™ elements allow you to reach temperature within a minute vs much slower response times of tubular element designs. 

Flanged Inline Air heaters use internal "K" type thermocouple sensors to measure temperature as various points - on the element, inlet and outlet. These are part of SureHeat's Over Temperature Protection (OTP).  Coupled with an external limit control, OTP protects elements from premature failure if the airflow is reduced. It also protects against user error if the temperature is set to high. OTP allows our heaters to operate continuously for long periods of time without overheating. 

System Overview

An SFI System consists of an open element electric heater plus a control cabinet to ensure accurate temperature control and safe operation.

The Heater

An SFI heater consists of a metal housing and the heating element assembly installed inside the housing.  The metal housing is a round pipe with flanges for connecting to the customer’s piping and fittings for the power supply feed-throughs and control instrumentation.  It is custom engineered to meet the unique temperature, pressure, and mass flow rate requirements for the application. The diameter is determined by how large the heating element needs to be to meet the heat transfer demand while maintaining low pressure drop.  Wall thickness, flange specifications, and material of construction are all established by ASME design principles for pressure vessels (Section VIII, Division 1).    

The Control Cabinet

Tutco provides custom control cabinets designed to work with our Serpentine elements and are guaranteed to work safely with our heater. Other control devices may not offer the responsiveness required to control Serpentine elements and are not guaranteed by Tutco SureHeat. Control cabinets include a phase-angle fired SCR power controller, PID-Based digitial temerature controller, and a 4 input OTP limit circuit. 

Heater Types

SFI-HP - High Pressure Models

High Pressure models are designed for use with high pressure air sources (> 50 psi, 3.5 Bar), and are constructed of heating elements aligned with the airflow. SFI-HP models can produce air/gas temperatures to 1652°F (900°C) or higher in custom designs.

SFI-LP Low Pressure

Low Pressure models are designed for use with low pressure air sources like regenerative blowers (< 50 psi, 3.5 Bar) and are constructed of low-restriction crossflow elements. SFI-LP models can produce air/gas temperatures to 1475°F (800°C).