ABB drives cut the costs of high pressure gas

A manufacturer of gas pressure boosters has cut manufacturing costs and given its customers more control of their applications by adopting ABB general machinery drives.

Utile Engineering Ltd., based in Northamptonshire, produces a range of gas pressure boosters for applications such as burners, gas engines and waste gas burners. Its customers often have a need to increase the incoming gas pressure supplied to their applications.

An example is where plant, for instance heat treatment equipment or gas oxidation equipment for burning toxic waste, is sourced from Europe where the mains gas is supplied at a higher pressure The UK gas supply is maintained at 20 mbar, so UK customers using European plant will need a boost in gas pressure to operate their equipment correctly.

The gas pressure boosters supplied by the company were using a vee-belt system to drive the pressure boosting fan, with speed controlled by a series of geared pulleys and employing direct-on-line starting. Utile was looking for a more controllable method of governing fan speed and hence pressure and considered variable speed drives (VSDs).