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9 October 2012

Cooling Tower Fans - Energy Saving

Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering Ltd produces a range of products for mills and presses, nuclear, defence, power generation, offshore oil and gas and materials processing industries.

One of the company’s key capabilities within the materials processing industry is steel roll making. The current work roll facility was purpose built in 1992 and is one of the most modern plants in the world.

Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering Ltd manufactures some of the world’s largest steel castings, ranging from 1 to 350 tonnes, steel forgings of up to 200 tonnes and forged steel bar. Cast steel and forged steel components can be supplied rough or finish machined to high tolerances using carbon, alloy and stainless steels.

The Engineering division has played a significant role in the development of new materials and processes in the power generation and offshore markets. Technical expertise enables the company to spearhead replacement component manufacture. Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering Ltd is a strategic facility within the UK for the manufacture of components for nuclear and defence equipment.

Halcyon Drives, was asked to conduct an energy survey at their factory on the Melting Shop Cooling Tower Fans – 3 x 24kW motors. The Fans operated at full speed, for approximately 6000 hours per annum.

By adding 3 x ACS800-01-0040, IP55, and a temperature sensor in the return cooling water pipework, the fans will run under PID control.

If the fans were to run at typically 75% speed and based on a tariff of £0.07 per kWh, the savings would be approximately £17,000 in the first year, providing a return on the investment in less than 9 months. However the fan speed is dependent on the temperature of the water being monitored by the transducer in the return pipework. The kWh are currently being monitored by the ACS 800 drives and the savings are expected to be greater than predicted by the survey.

Halcyon Drives also made major changes to the MCC in order that the ACS800 Drives could be installed correctly.

The project cost was £12.7k, which included the installation and commissioning.

If you would like further information, please contact us or phone 0113 2631509

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