Clayton's high performance steam generators are the most compact, effective, responsive and safe units in the world for producing high quality steam. The Clayton steam generator has been continuously developed since 1930 and is very different in its way of producing steam from the conventional firetube boilers, which still function in the same way as the boilers of a steam train. The firetube water boiler; requires a lot of water and steel, which must be brought to temperature and maintained. The Clayton steam generator, on the other hand, requires very little water and uses much less steel to provide the same amount of steam. The basic principle of operation of a Clayton steam generator is both ingenious and simple. Water is pumped through a pipe coil with an increasing cross-section, so that high pressure steam is discharged on the other side. The Clayton steam generator uses three main components that have been designed and developed for this very purpose. The boiler feed water is pumped through a specially shaped single pipe heating coil via a piston diaphragm pump, which was developed by Clayton for this purpose. Directly from the outlet of the single pipe heating coil the steam is directed to a high efficiency centrifugal separator. This forced flow concept produces saturated steam with almost complete dryness. The separated water is recovered at any time and returned to the steam generator system.