Challenge – Cooling Towers Loaded with Dust, Dirt, Pollen & Cottonwood Causing System Downtime at Processing Plant
Manufacturing 2.9 million award winning glass containers everyday for the world’s most recognized beers, beverages and consumer product brands keeps this New York processing plant continuously running. State of the art equipment is utilized to cool and shape molten glass into desired forms through an assembly line made up of a batch & furnace area, forming area, inspection & packaging area, and a handling & storage area. As the batch (raw materials of glass production) travels through the furnace at an average temperature of more than 2,300 degrees, it is melted to molten glass. The molten glass flows through a refiner and is cooled before reaching a feeder to be formed. Throughout the forming process temperatures drop to 900 degrees, are brought up again to near melting point and then reduced again to below 900 degrees. The whole process, along with hot and cold end sprays and rapid cooling, is an intricate process that cannot be delayed with cooling system downtimes or blocked air intakes. SPX cooling towers and BAC systems used to maintain cooling throughout the plant were getting clogged with dust, dirt, pollen and cottonwood seeds. It is necessary to shut the systems down in order to continuously clean the fins and coils with messy chemicals and water.
Solution – PreVent Air Intake Screens Make Cleaning Easy
PreVent® Equipment Protection Filters, made of UV protected polypropylene media, were custom sized for the air intakes on each piece of cooling equipment. The filter screens were attached securely with grommets and plastic mount kits. The facilities maintenance department were amazed at how much debris was collected just 10 days after installation (as seen in the photos). The top cooling tower photo shows the difference in units, after maintenance removed the filter from the unit on the left for cleaning. The PreVent filters were cleaned and re-installed quickly. The VP of Engineering was so thrilled with the results, that he forwarded copies of the photos to all the company’s 10 other plant managers. Cleaning routines were simplified, equipment efficiencies optimized and system downtime disruptions minimized.
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