Beko provides solution for car manufacturers (Jan/Feb 2013)
Beko Technologies has helped one of the largest car manufacturing plants in the UK, based in the North East of England. The customer approached Beko Technologies following a supplier recommendation as they were looking to replace the existing dryers which were also due an overhaul. We felt that the refurbishment was not a very cost effective method as the existing equipment would still be costly to operate even after a major overhaul. Beko offered a solution to replace this equipment with ‘zero-purge’ desiccant dryers that would reduce running costs significantly and offer improved air quality.
The car plant had objectives, to reduce the consumption of compressed air at the same time as achieving an improvement in the quality of the compressed air. One of the main stipulations was a silicon free product to reduce rejections when painting car bodies.
Beko addressed this by offering their Everdry Frav series of twin tower, desiccant, silicon free, heat regenerated dryers with zero purge loss. The initial calculations showed that the project payback exceeded the site’s acceptable parameters. The initial project was to replace 2 of the existing dryers but projected energy savings provided a sound case to change all 4 of the existing dryers. An order was placed to supply 4 of the Everdry Frav dryers, to give flexibility and some future cover. The car plant project team were happy with the reduced load on the compressors which gave more flexibility and enabled rotation of the compressors on the paint shop area.
The installation was not easy because of the constraints of a busy car plant with short opportunities to be shut down and work carried out. Also the physical size of the drying plant and the available area were very close. However the two teams worked well together and a successful installation and commission was achieved on time. The real savings have exceeded those calculated initially and have effectively given back one compressor as a spare, with the quality of the air consistently better than prior to the change out.
After over 12 months in operation, the Project Engineering team at the car plant are able to report that the project was completely successful by every measure set.
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