Client:
Schenck Process Australia
Project:
Temporary Chiller
The Situation:
Schenck Process are a global company that design and make processes work in all areas of industries across the world. Schenck Process Australia has a large plastic manufacturing workshop in Victoria, responsible for manufacturing plastic components.
As part of their manufacturing process they rely on their chillers to cool down the plastic molding, though recently they have been anything but reliable with constant breakdowns and underperformance.
With the cooling system being so unreliable Schenck found themselves falling further and further behind in production schedules. They knew they needed a temporary solution while exploring permanent options, so they contacted Active Air Rentals.
The Challenge and Solution:
Active Air Rentals commissioned one of their 220KW chillers to work in place of the site’s two 100kw chillers. The temporary chiller would be plumbed into the existing pipework.
Easy, right? Not quite…
The existing pipework wasn’t your typical copper or steel 100mm pipe set up; HDPE 80mm plastic pipes were used in the installation. The Active Air team needed to brace the pipework and create adapters for the temporary chiller to connect to the site’s existing plumbing system.
Schenck required the interruption to production when the changeover to the temporary chiller took place to be no longer than an hour, but less time was better.
Challenge accepted.
The site only had the power capacity to run either the two existing chillers or Active Air’s temporary chiller, meaning Active Air has to ensure the temporary chiller was up running and working correctly, before shutting down the permanent chillers and making the changeover to the temporary chiller.
And we like a bit of a challenge here at Active Air, so we said we could do it in 15 minutes, and the team delivered. Production was only interrupted for just over 10 minutes while the system was switched over.
The installation will likely be in place for three months, or more while Schenck explore permanent options. Already they are impressed, with Active Air’s solution exceeding all expectations and outperforming their permanent system, even when it was running to its full potential.
“Issues with a failing water chilling unit prompted the need for a temporary solution while a permanent and efficient solution was developed. Our concerns with hiring a unit and knowing it could handle the summer ahead were quickly resolved by Active Air, who supplied and installed a hire unit that exceeded all expectations. Installation was pain-free with little to no effect on production, and the benefits were realised almost immediately.
We are now in a position to continue to concentrate on production, supplying customers’ needs and not worrying about a failing cooling system. Active Air has performed above our expectations in supplying an immediate solution to our needs.”
Peter Stock
Production Co-Ordinator, Schenck Process Australia Pty Ltd
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