Ricoh saves £100,000 with plant-wide drives project
Office equipment manufacturer Ricoh reports savings of more than £100,000 per annum on energy costs at its production plant in Telford, since installing ABB variable-speed drives (VSDs).
Safety and savings
Compressed air continues to offer many advantages in process industry applications, especially in hazardous areas, but often continues to be used inefficiently. Help - much of it free - is readily available to help reduce energy costs and technical solutions often have surprisingly short payback times, which are likely to become even shorter as energy prices rise.
Dust explosion
Running motors and low voltage ac drives on plants with dusty environments has been regulated under the ATEX directives since 2006. Steve Ruddell explains the detail
Feet flat on the floor
Last month's introduction of legislation concerning new electric motor efficiencies should be focusing minds on cost and carbon saving projects. Brian Tinham reports
Drives help power plant produce more electricity
Västerås, Sweden-based power and district heating provider Mälarenergi, says it has increased the amount of energy it can sell by 35 GWh/year, following installation of medium voltage drives.
Drives on the turn
Variable speed drives have been a mainstay of plant engineering for many years, but the latest generation is changing the art of the possible. Brian Wall reports
Blowing hot and cold
Last summer's government energy strategy - which called for power generation from renewables to rise to 20% by 2020 and for CO2 to be reduced by 60% before 2050 - is going to have a profound effect on plant, and that includes HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) installations. That's particularly the case in non-domestic buildings, where space and water heating account for significant energy use and emissions. And it's not only about increasing the use of air source and ground source heat pumps, or solar hot water systems: variable speed drives (VSDs) on existing fan and pump equipment, as well as CO2-based building energy controls are among other technologies that need to play their part.
Weg variable speed drive pays back for Rittal-CSM
Plymouth-based Rittal-CSM reports completion of the latest stage of its energy saving carbon reduction programme; with Drew & Co installing more efficient pump controls at its paint plant.