Two Turbomiser chillers are
cooling high power lasers and
clean rooms at Photronics’
high-tech production facility
in South Wales. The
installation, carried out by
Cool-Therm at Photronic’s
Bridgend facility, involves
two model TMA300
Turbomiser chillers, rated at
300kW each, which replaced
units running on R22 and the
interim refrigerant R79.

Since the Turbomisers
were installed, energy
consumption for cooling at
the plant has been halved.

A key requirement was
that the chillers had to
operate with very low noise
and deliver high efficiency,
reliable cooling. As
Photronics operates a 24/7
continuous process business,
there had to be continuity of
cooling during the changeover
and high resilience once
up and running.

Patrick Silman, who heads
the process facilities, said: “We
are monitoring energy use
carefully and are on schedule
to save some £170,000 within
two years on power costs
alone. The machines are
incredibly quiet. I sometimes
have to go and check they are
actually running.”