BACnet-based drives control air quality and product testing at ABB 16 September 2010

An HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system is offering ABB a double advantage by controlling air quality at one of its factories in Finland while simultaneously being used during functional testing of its products.

ABB's Vuosaari factory, near Helsinki produces, Azipod – an electrically-driven marine propulsion unit, mainly used on cruise liners and other special-purpose ships.

Teemu Heikkilä, product manager, specialising in BACnet at ABB's low voltage ac drives factory in Helsinki, explains that the BACnet digital control network enabled ABB drives in the HVAC system to meet the needs of this dual application.

As well as monitoring heating and air conditioning throughout the site, the BACnet-based building automation system monitors the flow and temperature of air used by air-cooled Azipod propulsion units undergoing testing, he explains.

That means controlling 30 ABB standard drives for HVAC control, as well as all the pumps and fans. Heikkilä says that making that work involved dividing the BACnet system into three sub-networks: one for the office block, with five air handling units; one for the factory, with three; and one air handling unit dedicated to supplying cooling air for testing.

"Thanks to the BACnet-based building automation system, the same operator workstations are used for the air conditioning of the factory and the acceptance testing," comments Heikkilä. "The engineers involved in testing Azipod can control the air cooling system from their portable workstations on a wireless network."

And he adds: "The network is future-proof. You can freely expand the system without touching the existing configuration, which will be compatible without modifications."

Brian Tnham

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