A cold quench at Last
Published: 13 November, 2014
When temperatures in a quench bath rose to 35oC for one engineering company it meant production targets were under threat. This then had potential for additional complications, waste product, severe delays in supply chain delivery and compromising the company/client working relationships; all factors that could have serious short and long-term financial implications.
They are not alone, many heavy duty manufacturing companies still rely on traditional water cooling towers to lower the temperature of water entering the production process for cooling machinery as well as component cooling in ‘quench’ baths. Unfortunately these towers are susceptible to outside influences - hot summers easily reduce their effectiveness increasing the ambient temperature of the cooling water entering the process line and for many other reasons such as safety they are taken off line.
When a major casting company found that its quench water had reached 35oC the bath became ineffective, manufacture items could not be cooled quickly enough meaning production targets could not be met.
This heavy engineering company needed a quick temporary fix and turned to one of the UK’s leading chiller hire specialists Andrews Chillers for advice.
For the casting company, engineers for Andrews Chiller Hire carried out a site survey and recommended running water from the quench tank through a small 30kW chiller equipped with booster pump and external heat exchanger. This combination gave faster water recycling and more rapid temperature drop. This immediately began lowering temperature in the quench bath, taking it from 35oC to just 8oC, allowing the engineering company to resume normal activity and put production schedules back on track.
Unexpected problems can arise as a result of increased demand on production or unprecedented summer temperatures, requiring the on-site plant to increase the chilling factor. Unable to cope or when plant failure occurs, a supplement system is urgently required.
Many leading hire organisations will claim to provide 24/7, 365 day access to specialist engineering staff, there are just a few that can actually deliver on this promise and have a large nationwide network of depots that can respond promptly as in a plant emergency. Without rapid response the customer faces the possibility of losing many thousands of pounds through machine downtime or waste product.
Choosing the right hire company can certainly pay dividends – quicker response to cooling problems, competent engineers, faster delivery – and above all temporary installation of the right chiller to enable the production process to re-start.
For further information please visit: www.andrews-sykes.com
