From Gas Train to Spare Parts: How ACI Protects Combustion Uptime from Design Through Daily Operations

Most combustion system projects end at commissioning. Your equipment gets installed, the burners light off, the control panel checks out, and the integrator moves on to the next job. What happens after that is largely left to you.

At ACI Controls, we know that's the wrong place to stop.

Reliability isn't just engineered into a system at the start. It has to be sustained every day after that through smart stocking decisions, proactive maintenance, and knowing that the right part is always within reach when something needs attention.

And especially for combustion systems, where a single failed component can take a production line offline or create a serious safety issue, the gap between "installed right" and "running right, long-term" is where a lot of operations quietly lose money.

But let’s take a look at how you can close that gap.

What Engineering Reliability Actually Looks Like

A recent project actually gives us a great starting point as we dive into this topic.

Our team recently completed a paired set of custom gas trains as part of a customer's full combustion system upgrade, and the scope of the project illustrates what it means to engineer reliability from the ground up.

Each gas train was built around a Sensus 243-8 regulator and a KromAmericas VAS double safety shutoff valve with integrated high and low pressure switches. Manual isolation valves were added for an additional layer of safety. Both trains were fully assembled, leak-checked, and painted in-house before leaving our facility (not drop-shipped or field-assembled on the fly).

The gas trains were just one piece of a larger system. The customer also received a pair of Honeywell Maxon burners and an ACI-fabricated burner management control panel, bringing together pressure control, combustion equipment, and automation under a single integrated scope. Nearly turnkey, from piping to controls.

That matters for a few reasons.

When multiple system elements come from different vendors with no single party responsible for integration, then compatibility and commissioning issues tend to surface at the worst possible times, like during startup, or worse, during an unplanned failure. Bringing the gas train fabrication, burner selection, and control panel design under one roof eliminates that coordination gap.

Our engineers understand how all the pieces interact, which means your system is optimized as a whole rather than assembled in pieces.

The in-house assembly and leak-checking detail is worth pausing on. For a combustion engineer reviewing this, it’s an important risk management statement, rather than simply a quality control note.

Gas train integrity is non-negotiable. Leak-checking in a controlled shop environment (by the team that built the assembly) is a materially different process than field verification done in a time crunch. It's one of those things that separates a system built for long-term reliability from one built just to pass inspection.

The Business Case for Getting It Right

The ROI argument for combustion reliability isn't abstract. It flows directly from how combustion systems affect operations.

A combustion system that runs consistently reduces fuel consumption by maintaining optimal air-fuel ratios. One that's properly integrated with its control system gives operators visibility into performance trends, enabling faster troubleshooting and more targeted maintenance. And one that's designed with the right safety architecture (dual shutoffs, proper pressure controls, compliant BMS) reduces both regulatory exposure and the risk of incidents that have consequences far beyond the cost of equipment.

When high-quality components from manufacturers like Honeywell Thermal Solutions and Maxon are paired with engineering expertise in system integration and panel fabrication, the result is a system that delivers:

• Consistent, repeatable performance
• Fewer unplanned shutdowns
• More stable process output
• Lower maintenance costs over time

But we aren’t talking about theoretical benefits here. These constitute the operational difference between a system that was installed right and one that was engineered right.

It’s worth keeping in mind that even the best-engineered combustion system is only as reliable as the support structure around it. And that's where most companies leave value on the table.

The Part Too Many Vendors Neglect: What Happens After Commissioning

Once a combustion system is online, it becomes a collection of consumable components. Flame scanners. Ignition transformers. Gas valves. Pressure regulators. Pressure switches. Solenoid valves. These are the parts that don't fail on a schedule, but they do fail. When that happens, how quickly you can respond determines how much downtime costs you.

Most maintenance teams handle that reactively. A part fails, someone searches for it, lead times are checked, and emergency freight is considered. In the meantime, the system is down.

A Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) program is the structural solution to that problem. Rather than managing combustion spare parts on a reactive basis, VMI puts the right components on-site and in designated locations, tracked digitally, with automatic replenishment tied to actual consumption patterns.

You're not guessing at stocking levels or tying up capital in excess inventory. The inventory is managed for you, calibrated to your specific equipment and operational risk profile.

ACI recently documented what this looks like in practice. In a VMI program implemented for a major refinery, the results included:

• 40% reduction in stock-out incidents
• 22% reduction in total MRO inventory value
• 15 to 20 hours per week returned to maintenance planners (time previously consumed by manual inventory tracking and emergency procurement activity)
• 25% improvement in maintenance response time

The approach that produced those results wasn't complicated. ACI conducted a site audit that included SKU usage history analysis, critical spare identification, failure rate evaluation, and lead-time mapping for key suppliers.

From that baseline, a customized stocking plan was built. This wasn’t a generic list of "recommended spares," but a plan calibrated to actual operational data. Replenishment was automated. And monthly performance reviews kept the program current as consumption patterns evolved.

As you can see in our success story linked above, the VMI program becomes even more than simply a supply chain adjustment, as it’s really a reliability initiative.

For combustion-focused operations, the translation is direct. The components that keep a gas train operational, ensure proper fuel conditioning, and protect your burners and your BMS can be managed with the same rigor.

The goal isn't to have every conceivable part on the shelf. It's to have the right parts available, with no guesswork, no scramble, and no emergency freight eating into your maintenance budget.

Two Sides of the Same Commitment

The gas train project and the VMI program represent the same underlying idea, approached from two directions.

On the front end, engineering a combustion system right—selecting the right components, integrating them properly, building and testing in-house—is how reliability gets designed in. The choices made at specification, during fabrication, and at commissioning have consequences that run for years. That's the work our engineers take seriously on every project.

On the back end, VMI is how that reliability gets sustained. It's the operational infrastructure that ensures a well-engineered system can be maintained efficiently, that downtime incidents stay short when they do occur, and that maintenance teams spend their time on engineering problems rather than procurement problems.

Together, they reflect what we mean when we talk about protecting uptime and ROI from design through ongoing operations. Neither half is sufficient on its own. A perfectly engineered combustion system with no spare parts program is one stock-out away from an avoidable shutdown. A well-stocked inventory program built around a poorly integrated system doesn't address the root cause.

ACI's position as both a combustion system integrator and a stocking distributor with deep relationships across the brands our customers run enables us to address both sides for you. That's not a common combination, and it's one we've spent more than 80 years building the capability to deliver.

Ready to Evaluate Your Combustion System?

If you're planning a combustion system upgrade or are looking at an existing system that's been performing below expectations, our engineers can help you assess what it would take to get there. We can also help you see what the right support structure looks like after commissioning.

Talk to our engineering team about your combustion system requirements, whether you're starting from scratch or upgrading an existing installation.

If your focus is on the operational side—spare parts management, stocking strategy, or reducing the cost and friction of unplanned maintenance—the right starting point is a VMI audit.

Request your no-cost, no-obligation VMI Audit. Your 30-minute session with one of our inventory process experts will include a full system audit and a custom stocking plan. And there’s no obligation, no pressure. Just a clearer picture of where your program stands today and what it could look like.

Reliable combustion systems don't happen by accident. First, they’re engineered, and then they’re sustained. We help on both of those fronts, so feel free to reach out and see how you can keep your plant running.