For a leading custom profile extruder, located in a residential neighborhood in the Netherlands, operating quietly and efficiently is of the utmost importance. Because the company offers a complete design and production process for clients – rather than manufacturing standard products – operations need to be up and running seven days a week, as well as overnight.
Extrusion and Vacuum
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. During the process, materials such as metals, polymers, ceramics, concrete, food and plastics are pushed through a die of the desired cross-section to create the profile. The advantages of this process are its ability to create complex designs and to work with a range of materials; the end result also features excellent surface finishes. The extrusion of plastics relies on vacuum for the evacuation of gases from the process.
Saving Energy while Reducing Maintenance Costs
With 40 production lines, each with its own vane pump, one full-time service employee was needed to keep all the pumps up and running at the extrusion facility. When the company decided to upgrade their current vacuum pumps, they designed a centralized vacuum system. The company’s new Atlas Copco GHS 900 VSD+ vacuum pumps deliver the same performance as three of the former pumps while serving multiple production lines.
Thus, centralizing the vacuum system reduces the number of vacuum pumps needed for the operation, which saves energy and reduces maintenance costs. Additionally, the pump features technology that has been proven reliable with no risk of overheating, and it is very quiet. Because the company operates in a residential area, quiet operation is vital to maintaining a friendly relationship with the neighbors.
How to Save $8,500 Annually
The new vacuum pumps are fitted with a 15 kW motor and replace two older pumps of 11 kW each. The energy savings simply from reducing kWh results in nearly $8,500 in annual savings. And energy savings are not the only environmental benefit the company has realized. An energy recovery system uses the heat generated by the new vacuum pumps to heat water that is then pumped across the street to heat the municipal swimming pool.
Learn More about Atlas Copco’s GHS VSD+ Vacuum Pump
If you’d like to learn more about Atlas Copco’s vacuum offerings, visit the Atlas Copco vacuum solutions website, or contact us.
