Product category:
Motors and Variable speed drives
News Release from: Control Techniques | Subject: Henry Denny
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 15 February 2008
Drive provides cooler energy savings
A large freestanding variable speed AC drive from Control Techniques has produced improved temperature control as well as electricity savings in the chilled rooms for one food company
The installation at Henry Denny is well on the way to delivering a massive saving of around GBP23k in their annual electricity bill - a cut of 50% of the plant total power usage Henry Denny and Co manufactures a wide range of pies, sausage rolls, pasties, cottage pies and so on
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 25 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
AC motor drives produce more Pot Noodles
The drive is on to boost production of the UK's most popular hot snack food, and production lines are being improved to reduce downtime and increase throughput.
Drives give great ball control at Soccer Circus
AC servo-drives from Control Techniques play a vital team role in Kevin Keegan's unique 'Soccer Circus' at the Xscape Leisure Park near Glasgow
At its Portadown plant in Northern Ireland, a complex of 20 chilled rooms stores a huge amount of not only the company's own production output, but, as the site acts as a regional distribution depot for Northern Ireland, it also holds many thousands of pounds worth of cheeses, butter, hams and bacon from other companies in the Kerry Group too.
"We have a large ammonia compressor to keep the cold rooms within very carefully controlled temperatures," explains the Henry Denny Electrical Engineer, Ciaran McSherry: "and, previously this was soft-started and run up to full speed on demand".
When the company had to replace the soft starter for the compressor, Mr McSherry recommended a change to a variable speed AC drive.
Further reading
RFC motor control gives Unidrive SP an advantage
Rotor Flux Control is seen as a major advantage in applications where a combination of dynamic performance, stability and speed accuracy are required without encoder feedback
New frame size D added to Commander SK drives
Control Techniques launched the Commander SK general purpose drive range in 2005 - it has been so well received by the market, it has tripled their market share in the largest drives sector
Lead in drive flexibility extended with LonWorks
The Control Techniques range of AC drives now offer communication with the LonWorks network, a popular choice particularly for heating, ventilating and air conditioning applications
"The compressor is a major contributor to the plant total base load" he says, "and I felt that there were savings to be made by providing more precise control of the compressor.
But even I was surprised when the payback turned out to be just six months!".
The company turned to its preferred drives supplier, Control Techniques, a major supplier to the Kerry Group throughout Ireland.
The Dublin Drive Centre recommended a freestanding Unidrive SP for the task, additionally meeting the space constraints for the drive location and, subsequently, supplying a compact 315 KW unit just 400-mm wide in October 2006.
"All of our engineering team has been trained on Control Techniques drives, and we've used them for over five years" says Mr McSherry: "We find them easy to programme, install and maintain.
Plus the Control Techniques support and service is very good".
Following installation by the Henry Denny staff over a three day period and commissioning by Control Techniques, the improvements became clear from the outset.
The drive is set up to give a pulse for each kWh feedback to the factory management system, so that the company can monitor energy usage.
The savings proved to be better than the conservative estimate given by Control Techniques, giving savings in the region of 7,500kWh (@ 6p per kWh) per week.
When combined with other factory energy savings initiatives, the installation of this drive is generating 75% of the total savings of GBP600 per week.
The free standing drive is part of the Unidrive SP AC drive range and comes complete and ready for easy connection, in a small footprint, standard size and colour cubicle that allows ease of integration with existing equipment, as at Henry Denny.
The compressor controller calls for more or less compression of ammonia coolant with immediate response from the drive.
"We used to have a slow reaction time to temperature swings with the soft starter," says Ciaran McSherry, "but now it is easy to hold the temperature pretty well bang on at our target of -10C, as well as cutting our energy bill by around 50%.
The project has been enormously successful and has really reinforced the energy-saving benefits that can come from variable speed drives". Request a free brochure from Control Techniques ...
• Control Techniques: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Processingtalk email newsletter
• Processingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
