ASDSDA

PLASTICS PLANT AVOIDS A FOURTH OF JULY MELTDOWN

RES recently received a call from a long-time customer – a plastics manufacturing plant – because a prior installation of two air-cooled chillers was responsible for warm water being supplied to their equipment. Could we visit them immediately and come up with a solution in a day’s time? Two lines were shut down and money was being lost.

RES rushed a project manager that afternoon to investigate and found the customer was correct: both air-cooled chillers were under an awning, with the building blocking significant airflow to the chillers. Hot air from the condensers was not being dissipated and was recirculating back into the condensers.

If cooler air cannot be moved across the hot condenser coil, heat cannot be rejected, and equipment will be unable to perform as designed. The chiller’s “engines” (compressors) were overheating and unable to make the cold water needed for the plant to remain productive.

Moving the chillers to improve their airflow was impractical, so we attacked the issue from two fronts: diagnose the failing equipment to see what corrective actions could be made to improve their performance and install a mini-plant rental on a flatbed trailer to provide them immediate relief.

RES jumped into action later that afternoon to design a solution with a properly sized rental chiller, pumps, and a buffer tank. The next morning our installation crew began gathering hoses and electrical leads while our office team coordinated a small crane to load the mobile plant on our trailer.  That afternoon RES delivered a new 50-ton Dunham Bush air-cooled scroll chiller, a 2000-gallon buffer tank, two pumps, and the needed hoses and fittings to begin the installation. We worked late Friday night running hoses and installing a new 125A breaker in the customer’s electrical panel to power the chiller. We returned Saturday to complete the installation and start the plant.