page 1 of 3 2007.12.06

Saving Energy, Improving the Product

Controlling speed through variable speed drives is not only a good way to optimise an industrial process, it can also be usefully applied to hydrodynamic machines, making it possible to cut their energy requirement.
Adjusting the speed of pumps or fans is one of the most efficient ways of saving energy.
In recent years there has been a considerable increase in variable speed applications, but unfortunately, in spite of their considerable success, they have not been adequately promoted.
It is becoming increasingly important and urgent, in companies, in public buildings, and in large and small installations, to start looking at technological solutions and innovations that can contain energy bills, which nowadays are increasing all the time on account of the unstoppable trend of rising oil prices.
The application described here is a real example of these concepts put into practice, the final results being the fruit of efforts to monitor and analyse the actual operation of mill’s equipment.
So let us go to the Italian province of Verona and, more precisely, to Cotonificio di Cologna Veneta, where they produce semifinished goods and cotton packages.
First of all, the company installed Danfoss inverters (the VLT2800 and VLT5000 series) in a bid to optimise the production process carried out by their 10 carding machines (lap autolevelling and delivery.)
Subsequently, following a careful study carried out by the company’s technical department in order to find solutions that might make it possible to cut energy consumption levels, Danfoss inverters to drive evacuation fans on the winding machine were added.
They analysed one of the 12 machines (all identical) used for winding, in other words, for the passage from bobbin to final cotton package, i.e. the stage that generates packages of yarn more suitable for the subsequent processing stages.