Atlas Copco’s CustomDesign – bespoke engineered products for total reliability in demanding environments
Atlas Copco Compressors has made major investment in its UK CustomDesign engineering facility based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. As one of the strategically located CustomDesign engineering centres, the UK workshop now plays a major role in the supply of bespoke solutions across the globe.
The end products are modular ‘plug and play’ packaged solutions, custom built and shipped with all components, such as compressors, air treatment, dryers, filters, air receivers and control systems, on a single base frame for integration with land based or offshore process installations.
Each project is unique and examples of bespoke projects include: a skid-mounted assembly of compressor, blowers and booster for a hydrocracker plant in Russia; a containerised multiple compressor installation operating in the desert environment of the Gulf; a compressor and dryer package for a methanol plant in Trinidad; and a compressor, dryer, pumps and cooler installation on the northern Pacific shore, where ambient temperatures vary from -40 to +40degC.
The 800m2 workshop area operates two ten tonne overhead cranes and one five tonne unit with a dedicated sunken load bay for road transportation of packaged assemblies. The installation includes a cooling water supply and a permanently installed 1,000 kVA generator to provide power for workshop testing at 50 or 60Hz. It is important for the oil and gas industries to have all equipment- testing carried out within the workshop before shipping. On-site commissioning time is, therefore, minimised for the customer.
On completion of a custom-engineering project the skid mounted packages are transported to UK sites or to overseas operations, normally via Tilbury the closest sea port. The exception to the rule has been the Pluto project for the production of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) in Western Australia. The compressor packaged unit was too large to be completed and shipped from the workshop so was actually assembled by the Atlas Copco engineering team on the dockside in Hull from where it was transported 12,000 miles to the customer’s site.
Events
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Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week
05 - 06 June, 2024
NEC, Birmingham -
HILLHEAD 2024
25 June, 2024, 9:00 - 27 June, 2024, 16:00
Hillhead Quarry, Buxton, Derbyshire UK
