OEM and equipment manufacturers · Cooling hire company, for a chemical manufacturer
A process cooling panel for a chemical plant, proven at a two-day factory acceptance test
A cooling hire company were supplying a process cooling system to a specialist chemical manufacturer in the South of England: a chiller, an air-blast fluid cooler, process and recirculation pumps and a weir tank. We designed, built and programmed the control panel, and the customer and their client watched it run through a two-day factory acceptance test in Stoke-on-Trent before it left.
- Site
- Chemical manufacturer, South of England
- Panel
- Outdoor twin-door process cooling panel
- Controls
- Chiller, air-blast cooler, 4 pumps
- Testing
- Two-day witnessed FAT
- Comms
- Modbus to the site network
The challenge
Run a chiller, an air-blast cooler and four pumps from one outdoor panel at a chemical plant, with Modbus to the site network.
What we supplied
A twin-door outdoor panel with a bank of Siemens LOGO! controllers, two Vacon drives and a safety relay, programmed by us.
The result
Two-day witnessed factory acceptance test in Stoke-on-Trent with very few changes, despatched the same day and on site the next.
The requirement
One control panel for a complete process cooling package at a chemical plant: enable and fault signals for a chiller and an air-blast fluid cooler, two process pumps and two recirculation pumps, temperature control from PT100 sensors, flow measurement, a weir tank with low level and high temperature protection and a return valve with fault indication. The site wanted it on their network over Modbus, with local and remote control, and the end client wanted to see it working before it was delivered.
The constraints
- Outdoors on a chemical site, under a canopy: the panel needed ventilation that kept its IP rating, so filter fans and baffled vents.
- Modbus communications to the site network, set up to the client's addressing.
- Hand/off/auto for every motor and a local/remote switch, so the plant can be run by hand if the network is down.
- A safety-rated emergency stop and surge protection on the incoming supply.
- A witnessed factory acceptance test with the hire company's technical and project managers, and the client's requirements to sign off.
What we built
A twin-door polyester enclosure for outdoor use with filter fans and baffled vents. Inside: two Vacon variable speed drives for the pumps, a bank of Siemens LOGO! controllers with temperature input modules and an Ethernet switch for the Modbus link, a Siemens SIRIUS safety relay for the emergency stop, a surge protection device, motor protection, interface relays and labelled terminals for every field signal. We wrote the control software ourselves, so the version tested at the factory acceptance test is the one that went to site. The door carries run and fault lamps with hand/off/auto for each motor, the weir tank and return valve alarms, and the LOGO! text display behind a clear cover.
Delivery
Order to factory acceptance test in about seven weeks. The test ran over two days in Stoke-on-Trent, with the communications checked over Modbus during it. The few changes asked for were made there and then, and the panel was despatched at the end of the second day and on site the next morning, with the program as tested, final drawings, the signed test document and photographs.
The outcome
A panel the end client had already seen running before it arrived. In the hire company's words after the test: "the testing went well with very little alterations being required."
Photos
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Send the spec, points list or drawing and we will tell you what we would build, the price and the date.
- Wiring diagram, test certificate and 12-month warranty with every panel
- Built to BS EN 61439 and BS EN 60204-1 in Stoke-on-Trent
- We reply during working hours, usually the same working day
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