Be prepared should failure strike

Perhaps the Scout motto of 'Be Prepared' is something businesses should take to heart. Implementing a contingency plan can ensure production output remains steady, chilled warehouses maintain correct temperatures and air-conditioning continues to provide a comfortable working environment for staff and temperature critical equipment.

At the heart of many temperature controlled processes and environments is a chiller system. These are designed to mostly process and recirculate chilled water.  This could be to provide cooling to hot injection moulding machine, removing heat generated by the printing rollers, keep machinery at ambient temperature during a cutting process as well as cooling the modern-day high powered electronics in control cabinets.  

Within an office building the chiller is used help to control room temperature via the main air-conditioning plant.

Air cooled chiller design

The whole purpose of a chiller is heat removal, reducing warm/hot water to help create constant workable temperatures. During operation, the flow of the warm/hot process water or that fed from air-con plant enters a chiller barrel (also known as the chiller evaporator) which also receives the system's cool low pressure mixture of liquid and vapour refrigerant; this absorbs the heat from the process liquid.  This transfer of heat boils the liquid refrigerant in the chillers evaporator and the super-heated vapour is pulled into a chillers compressor. This compresses the refrigerant to a high temperature and pressure, high enough to allow the chillers condenser (a heat exchanger) to reject heat from the chillers refrigerant to the atmosphere, axial fans (propeller type) drawing outdoor air over a finned tubed heat transfer surface (heat exchanger).

Since the efficiency of an air cooler chiller relies on expelling heat into the atmosphere correct position of a chiller is paramount.

Should an in-house chiller plant falter and ultimately fail, it could have dire consequences, particularly for manufacturing industries and distribution/storage warehouses. Lost production and late deliveries pose the potential for financial penalties as well as lost contracts.

Plant hire

In sourcing a chiller hire solution, confidence in an ability to move quickly in equipment hire is essential in order that the situation can be rectified as swiftly as possible. The search is on.

A chiller hire specialist that provides true 24/7, 365 day support with access to specialist engineering staff and having a national network of depots makes them a prime contender for winning a contract. FM teams should also establish the credentials of the hire organisation: Do they operate with sufficient fleet to respond quickly to an emergency situation, provide expert advice on the type of chiller best suited to their plant, the size of that chiller and where it is best sited?

Engineers from competent hire companies often will need to carry out a site survey, to identify:

•  Best position to site a skid-mounted chiller with easy access to power and away from closed spaces to ensure optimum performance with the smallest possible unit

•  Understand the cooling requirements of the customer

•  Specify a chiller capacity that must take into account ‘heat gains’ and ‘cooling losses’ from lengthy pipe runs.

Plan ahead

Choosing the right hire company can certainly pay dividends – quicker response to cooling problems, competent engineers, and faster delivery – and above all a temporary installation of the right chiller that achieves the best possible outcomes.

However efficient that hire company, there is often a delay before chiller despatch due to the site survey. Where in-house chiller downtime is critical, organisations should future-proof their temporary chiller-hire needs by establishing a working relationship with a chiller hire specialist. This could turn out to be one of the wisest decisions an FM or plant manager makes; chiller hire plant can be ready and waiting, matched to specific and unique requirements. On-site in just a few hours it could prevent serious downtime.

Making the right decision could save many thousands of pounds and save a reputation. www.andrews-sykes.com