Fulton’s founder, Lewis Palm, was a pioneer in the engineering of steam equipment for the  laundry and dry cleaning markets and his contribution to steam boiler history dates back to 1949 when, in a small garage next to his home, he invented the first vertical tubeless boiler. Within just a few short years, this boiler design would become one of the most popular models on the market for dry cleaners and launderers in the USA; and the latest innovations and newest technologies continued to capture Lewis’ interest and steered the direction of Fulton’s growth. 

Fast forward to the present day and the basic design principles of steam boilers remain unchanged, until now. Systems engineering analysis of boiler development at Fulton has led to the simultaneous use of low emission mesh burners with aerodynamic fans running at high RPM’s. This simultaneous combination of subcomponents (burners, fans, motors and controls) has resulted in new compact boiler pressure vessel designs.

Unhindered designs

So history is repeating itself at Fulton, although this time in very different ways. Fulton has embarked on a process within its research and development to use state-of-the-art engineering to dramatically improve its products. Its engineers are empowered to develop boiler solutions that are unhindered by previous design roadblocks or 'industry accepted' technology.

Designs encompassing compact footprints, superior efficiencies, reduced thermal stresses, novel heat exchangers, enhanced water management, high turndown ratios and inherent low emissions, were all optimised simultaneously. The result is the company’s new firetube SRT Series, which retains the positive features of the traditional tubeless boiler, but now with additional benefits and more than 30 worldwide patents pending. 

Using a combination of in-house modelling with computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis, the optimised design of the SRT Series makes the new boiler durable and reliable in operation; and with up to 6:1 turndown and featuring a fully-modulating burner, the SRT is said to have industry-leading performance with an 84.5% Gross (93.5% Net) thermal efficiency and 99.5% steam quality from a fully-water-backed design without the requirement of economisers. 

Fulton says the new vertical boiler’s spiral-rib tubeless design is a world first. It features patented, self-compensating stress relief architecture that virtually removes longitudinal stress and deflection absorption. This has enabled Fulton to create a boiler that is both lightweight and has a very small footprint. In fact, compared to the equivalent 30hp model from the company’s renowned J Series, the SRT Series is 40% smaller, made possible by incorporating an all-new mesh burner developed in partnership with a world-leading burner manufacturer – which reduces the size of the furnace and therefore the heat exchanger – and removing refractory (thermal insulation). 

To comply with anticipated EU regulations, the mesh burner and furnace are designed as a single component, resulting in NOx emissions of less than 40mg/kWh. 

Additionally, an all-new Futlontouch control system makes the SRT more user- and maintenance-friendly, which can help to reduce downtime by incorporating multiple alarms, detailed reports and diagnostics and daily boiler operator maintenance logging in a single touchscreen panel.  

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