Autoflame Engineering is a global manufacturer of world-class commercial and industrial combustion control and monitoring solutions that empower customers to monitor and reduce their emissions, fuel, and maintenance costs, as well as increase reliability in the boiler plant room.
Autoflame is a trusted, family-owned, British manufacturer with a global footprint. Over the last 50 years, and as an ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified company, they have grown into a multi-award-winning export champion. Made in Britain certified, they manufacture 98% of their products in-house in their headquarters just outside London. Their successful global partner network of over 100 technology centres installs and supports their products. Many of these partners have been working with the company for over 25 years to ensure customers have effective local support.
Autoflame is committed to serving customers of all sizes throughout India. By working with eight OEM and service partners, they ensure that both small and large corporations, e.g. Nestle, have access to timely local support. Our partners all around the globe receive annual training from Autoflame to ensure they are up-to-date with the latest product features.
Innovating for combustion efficiency
Autoflame were the pioneers in using microprocessors to control the combustion process. They had a patent for 20 years which set them apart from their competitors. That innovation has continued over the last 50 years, receiving a further 37 patents for their product range to date.
“We were able to sustain such a high level of innovation by securing strong relationships across our supply chain, localising our manufacturing and testing facilities, and investing heavily in their in-house R&D,” says Steve Kemp, Sales Director of Autoflame. During the pandemic, Autoflame has expanded its R&D capability by over 50% and they have not scaled back since. This has facilitated the launch of new products, including the highly anticipated Mini Mk9.
Mr Kemp highlights that “Many of our innovations were conceptual inspirations by my father, Brendan Kemp, inventing over 38 patented ideas, but we are always spending time in the field with our technology centres to ensure we understand first-hand, not only the product’s journey once it leaves our warehouse but also the endless applications – from biogas to biomass”.
Autoflame is fully immersed in honing the efficiency of boilers with precise, intelligent control of everything in the combustion process from the burner to the boiler, using just one controller.
Autoflame was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category by the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, for their Exhaust Gas Analyser (EGA), the Mk8 EGA EVO. The EGA monitors exhaust gas emissions to comply with environmental regulations and improve the efficiency of combustion, reducing fuel usage and harmful emissions. With a controls and burner upgrade, customers can see a typical energy savings of 10-15%. Autoflame has a proud association with the awards. This is the fourth award that the company have won, having previously been successful in 1996, 1997, and 2007 in the Export, Environmental, and Innovation categories respectively.
A collaborative approach towards net zero
Autoflame delivers precise and sustainable combustion processes across six continents. As the world progresses closer towards net zero, with tighter controls on carbon and NOx emissions, Autoflame adopts a collaborative approach. They have built longstanding, trusting relationships with many of their technology centres, growing and reducing plant emissions across the globe together. “They understand their market, their economic, environmental, and geopolitical situation”, explained Mr Kemp.
Autoflame products have been trusted to meet environmental targets across the globe. Mk8 EGA EVOs are frequently and quickly installed in the UK to ensure government-mandated MCPD compliance, or to assist companies that are driving their change and setting their emission reduction goals. “These days, when people in the industry talk about carbon footprint, they tend to measure the amount of fuel used which isn’t completely accurate. The most accurate way of taking this measurement is by measuring how well you’re burning that fuel,” says Mr Kemp. “The EGA can input a fuel meter, providing data on how much fuel is being used, and how well you’re burning it. From this, customers can precisely calculate a site’s carbon footprint.”
Autoflame has worked with companies and sites worldwide on a variety of applications and fuel types – Natural gas, biogas, hydrogen, and other alternative fuels. For example, the air pollution control programme, coal-to-gas, was implemented by China in 2016. A huge increase was experienced in the uptake of the Mini Mk8 burner controller and Mk8 EGA EVO. These controls assisted sites in switching from coal to gas, burning the gas in the smallest quantities with the highest performance and minimal emissions. At the press of a button, up to three years’ worth of data on burner and boiler performance is accessible in multiple language options – safely, securely, and consistently.
Fuel has been a big concern for the industry since 2022. With prices rising, companies are more aware of their fuel use. The Mk8 MM covers a wide spectrum of features, from built-in flame safeguard to complete burner/boiler management from a single device. A unique feature of the Mk8 MM is its fuel flexibility, or ‘change-on-the-fly’. The controller enables a rapid changeover from one fuel to another while the burner is firing – preventing unnecessary downtime and keeping the plant’s process in continuous operation.
Precise, intelligent control
Safety, accessibility, and precision are paramount to Autoflame. Their products carry worldwide approvals in every country across the world and are tested and approved by the local safety body. These include UL, CE, EAC, AGA, and ATEX. These approvals, such as ATEX explosion proof, mean their products can be securely used in hospital boiler rooms to petrochemical plants. Working closely with suppliers and their manufacturing teams, they meet and exceed every safety approval in the world at no additional cost to the customer.
In Q1 of 2024, Autoflame will be launching the Mini Mk9, the latest generation of their pioneering burner controller. One of the most unique features of the Mini Mk9 is the ability to trim the combustion process by monitoring the UV spectrum, making instantaneous changes to combustion to increase the efficiency and overall safety of the plant. The pre-existing process had an inherent time lag. With the new UV flame trim, a patented product exclusive to Autoflame, combustion is trimmed within a second of it taking place, this means there is no time lag in feeding back data and correcting the combustion process – delivering safety, efficiency, and performance with very little additional cost.
There might not be an answer as to how to get to net zero tomorrow, but Autoflame provides a solution right now that delivers energy, emissions, and cost savings, along with compliance and increased safety in modern boiler plant rooms.
Author
Daniela Niesing
Group Marketing Director
Co-Author
Nadeem Iqbal
Business Development Director
