Medway Galvanising to save £10,000 on energy with ABB drive 24 August 2012

Medway Galvanising Company is set to save more than £10,000 a year in electrical energy, while also cutting CO2 by 60 tonnes annually, following the installation of an ABB standard drive on its fume extraction system.

Its Sittingbourne, Kent plant processes up to 12,000 tonnes of steel a year, providing galvanising, powder coating, stripping and shot blasting services for architectural and structural steel.

Galvanising is carried out in the company's zinc dipping bath, which contains 145 tonnes of molten zinc at 450C. An extraction system removes harmful fumes and the fan was being run at full speed, 24/7.

The new drive, coupled to a high-efficiency 37kW ABB motor now runs the fan at half speed (25Hz) for most of the time.

Engineering manager Steve Lovelock explains that a limit switch then detects when the crane carrying the components to be dipped is over the zinc bath, signalling the drive to ramp the motor to full speed, usually for 10—20 minutes.

"We estimated we could achieve a saving of around £8,500, so the actual savings we are making are even better and we are still getting the effective fume clearance we need," states Lovelock.

"The fact that the motor is not working constantly flat out will also extend its life," he continues.

"We are currently conducting a motor management survey of other large energy using applications on the site so there could well be other uses for variable-speed drives in the plant."

Brian Tinham

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