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In some applications it may not be possible to reduce speed, consider a crushing or milling applications, the main opposing force is inertia. Within the machine kinetic energy is ‘stored’ in a flywheel, so reducing the speed will reduce the amount of energy ‘stored’ and the machine will become less effective.

In all cases it is the nature of the load that determines the potential for reducing energy consumption.

It is also worth noting that legislation does not always provide the best guidance. As widely reported, from the 1st January  2015  legislation introduces IE3 as the minimum acceptable efficiency for motors between 7.5kW – 375kW. As a concession to the motor manufacturers the legislation also allows IE2 motors fitted with VSD to be specified as an alternative. However, fitting an IE2 motor and VSD to a fixed speed application will be far less efficient and more costly, and therefore should be avoided.

To achieve the optimum system, designers must differentiate between fixed speed and variable speed applications at the outset, and then specify systems that are inherently efficient, where IE3 motors are selected, are correctly sized to the load, are operated at the most efficient speed and for the shortest possible period.

VSD’s are invaluable energy saving tools, but their capabilities will always be limited by the laws of physics. Therefore, industry will be relying on fixed speed motor control technology to provide energy efficient systems for the foreseeable future.

Soft-starter technology pioneer ramps up its capacity

World-renowned soft-starter pioneer Fairford Electronics is massively increasing its production capacity this month by opening new state-of-the art facilities in Devon.

The move will see huge improvements to the service that Fairford can offer its partners, which will include access to even more skilled staff in Fairford’s product

development team and ‘training and development’ opportunities for clients at Fairford’s new ‘Soft Starter Academy’.

 

 “Our new facilities really are a landmark in Fairford’s history,” said Stephen Royle, Fairford’s sales and marketing director.  “Over the past few years – with the help of our partners – we have made it a priority to develop increasingly new and innovative solutions, which has resulted in strong levels of organic growth.  This growth has been so promising that – in order to continue providing our customers with a high level of support – we have had to significantly increase our capacity and resources, particularly in terms of our sales support and our research and development facilities.”

“Another area where we’re adding resource is in our sales and marketing team to help develop our contracts.  Fairford is a strong brand that end users recognise, and we know our market well, so we feel that our customers will benefit greatly from our support and experience in this area.”

On an initial day-to-day basis, Fairford’s customers will see very little change.  They will continue to receive the same great products and assistance, but they’ll also notice some big improvements in the long term.  

 

 

 

“This is something we’re very excited about,” added Stephen.  “Our larger premises will give us greater production capacity and the ability to expand our skilled product development team, while we’ll have the ability to further enhance our market development with partners across the globe.  Another direct benefit of our new premises will be the development of a ‘Soft Starter Academy’, which will allow us to provide training and development our clients to support the growing demand for our products.”

Fairford Electronics’ premises will remain in Devon, but move to Plymouth, just 20kms away from their existing location.  They have been able to retain all of their dedicated staff, which will ensure that their high levels of service and quality are maintained.

Fairford will be holding an official launch on the 10th of June 2011, if you would like to attend please contact Fairford for an invitation.

beverages have become household names across the Caribbean, and distributed to over 60 countries worldwide.

The motor set is an ATB Morley Motor 550kW, 460V, 911 Amps driving a reciprocating three stage compressor set plated Garner Denver Balliss & Morcom. 

The motor/compressor set supplies the air for the plant machinery – High pressure for forming bottles. 

It supplies 40% of the capacity in the factory and is an integral part of the business. 

The Soft Starter Fairford Electronics Limited supplied, replaced an existing Soft Starter from another manufacturer where there had been a number of continual problems. 

Due to this the factory was now down 40% in its production capacity. 

Through use of the XFE’s unique ‘Automatic Application set up’ and ‘Automatic Features’ the commissioning only took a matter of seconds. 

By selecting ‘Recip Compressor’ from a list of applications in the ‘Applications’ menu the typical parameters for that application are downloaded along with a number of automatic features into the Soft Starter to aid the starting ramp profile for the specific application with no further adjustment required. 

Therefore the ramp profile of the Soft Starter will always automatically profile the speed torque curve of the selected application even if the loading placed on the system is different at each start. 
 

With the ease of programming along with the flexibility and functionality of the XFE Soft Starter this kept the factories down time to a minimum and got their production of its bottling manufacture up to full capacity in a matter of minutes. 

Geoffrey Estacio
PET Operations Manager – PET Department
Tel:  +1 868 677 7520   ext 2500
Fax:  +1 868 677 2043
E-mail: geoffrey.estacio@smjaleel.com
Website:  www.smjaleel.net