Wonder Cement in pursuit of Efficient Energy Saving Service Provider

India is the 2nd Largest Cement Producing country in the world. Established in the year 2010, Wonder Cement emerged as strong player in Indian market and since its inception it has upheld their legacy of being important member in cement industry. With an annual production of 6.75 Million Tons, Wonder Cement is one of the leading names in the Cement industry.

Hurdles on Road

The future market leaders of cement industry, Wonder Cement, launched their new Greenfield Project and was on the lookout for a reliable Energy Saving solutions provider, who can lower down their maintenance cost, reduce downtime and help in increasing total efficiency of their plant to maintain the productivity. Mitigation of production costs and reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions are the major concerns raised in the Cement industry. It was nothing different for Wonder Cement, their old cooling solutions required high maintenance often resulting in system failure due to the low quality of products. They needed a service provider that could reduce their operation cost while providing high Energy efficient Cooling solutions.

Innovation in Service & Energy by Rittal

Wonder cement approached Rittal to provide them with solutions that could reduce their operating cost along with providing energy efficient cooling solution. Our team proposed to do a detailed Audit of the plant first, to check up on the conditions of the installed equipment’s in plant. Our Audit report helped us to advise Wonder Cement with the right solutions. We provided them with small and large enclosures that could secure and provide durability to their drives. We also facilitated our efficient cooling units so that the drive inside the panel can be maintained at right temperature.

Outcome of Our Solution

Cement industry market was captured by local vendors and it was not easy for company like Rittal to enter in this market and provide its solutions and services. Our constant efforts and excellent track record, provided us an opportunity and we stepped right up with Wonder Cement. Rittal provided Wonder Cement with small enclosures, large enclosures and Blue e cooling units. It was quickly evident that not only did our solutions help to maintain the temperature inside the panel, it also helped in reducing total operation costs by saving energy. Blue e and Blue e+ has revolutionized the industries because of their low maintenance and highly dependable features. Rittal offered solutions that provided a considerable cost benefit in terms of procurement, energy savings and maintenance. The Blue e+ cooling unit series is the ultimate in terms of efficiency, saving up to 75% energy due to speed-regulated components and heat pipe technology. Due to the great product line, on-time delivery and prompt maintenance services; we have cemented the bond with Wonder Cement as their first choice for any upcoming future project when it comes to energy efficient solutions.

Rittal - Faster - Better - Everywhere

Rittal is World's Leading Systems provider for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and software & services. Known in high regard for our product and services, our versatile and flexible range of services perfectly compliment the exhaustive product portfolio that we put up. Our team of service partners and trained service engineers help us to provide innovative maintenance services in Rapid Response time. Ensuring impressive and dependable systems in full availability with all application areas worldwide, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Rittal - Powering Reliable Solutions for Arvind Ltd.

Technical Disruption at India’s Largest Manufacturer of Denims It was a chaotic situation at Arvind Ltd, the cooling units at the plant was regularly facing disruption due to technical snags. Arvind Ltd, World’s Fourth-Largest Producer and Exporter of Denims couldn’t afford this failure to affect their production activity.

Need of the Hour

The criticality for Arvind Ltd was to maintain the efficiency level of their plant and keep the production running. It just wasn't possible, periodic breakdowns made it difficult for Arvind Ltd. to function at its full potential. Even after acquiring all the necessary resources they were still unsuccessful in making sure that maximum utilisation of resources was attained.

Hurdles on Road

The cooling units at Arvind Ltd were of Rittal and Non-Rittal make which was serviced by a local vendor. Due to this, their biggest obstacle was the inaccurate technical expertise they received from other service providers. They got the cooling units fixed everytime, only for it to breakdown after a while. Temporary solutions were always available,Technical Disruption at India’s Largest Manufacturer of Denims however the concrete solutions were yet to be provided by Rittal

Partnering in Trust & Innovation

Rittal was able to propagate our goodwill in the books of Arvind Ltd after we implemented the solution to fix up the leakage from the cooling units. Our High quality service reduced 70% of the system failure which led to increase in efficiency & productivity. The excellent functioning of the cooling units was acknowledged by Arvind Ltd, flourishing our relationship with them for a long term.

Rittal - Faster - Better - Everywhere

Rittal is world's leading systems provider for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and software & services. Known in high regard for our product and services, our versatile and flexible range of services perfectly compliment the exhaustive product portfolio that we put up. Our team of 150 service partners and over 1000 trained service engineers help us to provide innovative maintenance services in Rapid Response time. Ensuring impressive and dependable systems in full availability with all application areas worldwide, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Introduction

ITC is one of India's foremost multi-business enterprise. It has been listed among India's Most Valuable Companies by Business Today magazine. It's aspiration to create enduring value for the nation and its stakeholders is manifested in its robust portfolio of traditional and greenfield businesses encompassing Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, and Information Technology.

Objective

One of India’s leading businesses in FMCG sector, ITC Ltd was in the process of finding Climate control solutions at ITC Ltd, Bengaluru – North Unit, keeping in view that the enclosure cooling solutions has to be energy efficient and maintenance free.

Innovative Energy Efficient Solution by Rittal

Rittal has been one of the leading names in terms of energy saving solutions because of our top-notch innovative and technologically advanced products and services. After the detailed conversation with the representative of ITC Limited, Bangalore, Rittal team of engineers audited their plant and suggested the right cooling solution to be installed. Rittal had to demonstrate, why their cooling systems are the best for ITC. In order to present the progress, Rittal demonstrated their energy consumption & maintenance free concept under the stipulated time of a month. Rittal Enclosure cooling unit (Blue e+) of 2000W along with an energy meter was installed on their machine. A month's review revealed that, World’s First Revolutionary Cooling Unit “Blue e+”, was leading in terms of energy efficiency and better performance.

Rittal - Affiliating Trust and Innovation

Rittal India Energy Efficient Cooling Solution, Blue e+, helped ITC save up to 60% of their energy consumption than the other manufacturer’s cooling units during a month's Unit Performance testing stage. The study during the trial period established the fact that Rittal Blue e+ is better in terms of performance and energy consumed than the present installed cooling units of other manufacturers. The team at Rittal upholds in high favour, gained by the approval of their energy efficient cooling solution, thus building a new found partnership with ITC.

Rittal - Faster - Better - Everywhere

Rittal is World's Leading Systems provider for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and software & services. Known in high regard for our product and services, our versatile and flexible range of services perfectly compliment the exhaustive product portfolio that we put up. Our team of service partners and trained service engineers help us to provide innovative maintenance services in Rapid Response time. Ensuring impressive and dependable systems in full availability with all application areas worldwide, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Cologne’s Ford engine plant shut down a number of times in one year due to defective cooling units. As a result, Ford immediately accepted Rittal’s offer to carry out a manufacturer-independent inventory of all the cooling units and to identify potential energy savings. The analysis by Rittal’s service specialists showed the urgent need to repair and replace eleven percent of the cooling units installed. In addition, Rittal drew up a comprehensive energy efficiency calculation, which resulted in savings of more than half a million euros within 10 years, with a payback period of just 2.4 years for the investment in the new cooling units.

“Rittal’s inspection revealed significant savings potentials for our plant.” Helmar Bencker, Plant Engineering & Environment Manager at Ford in Cologne

Over 220 cooling units from different manufacturers put to the test

The Rittal technicians checked the maintenance status of more than 220 cooling units at the Cologne Ford factory, relating to both Rittal climate control units, as well as third-party equipment. They checked the cooling unit components for dirt accumulation, damage and bearing noise. Then they drew up a maintenance checklist and made a number of improvement suggestions. Analysis showed that of the 220 enclosure cooling units installed, 25 were defective and needed to be repaired or replaced. The majority of these systems were competitor products with an average age of just five years.

Impressed by practical tests with Rittal Blue e+ cooling units

Parallel to the service check, the Rittal team set up a practice-oriented test facility at the engine plant. From July 2016 onwards, the 2.6-kilowatt Rittal Blue e+ cooling unit was compared with a 2.5-kilowatt cooling unit from a competitor. Initial findings show that the Blue e+ unit offers energy savings of 88.9% compared to the third-party system.

Manufacturing plant’s maintenance manager impressed by results

Based on the data collected, Rittal compiled a comprehensive efficiency calculation for the Ford plant in Cologne. Replacing 150 cooling units by Rittal “Blue e” and “Blue e+” systems would make it possible to achieve savings of more than €552,000 and 276.3 tons of CO2 over a useful life of ten years. Deducting the investment sum would result in a brief payback period of just 2.42 years, clearly less than the 3.5 years required. Its efficient products and consulting service have helped Rittal to get closer to being included in the technical delivery specification again with its cooling units. This represents a major endorsement for the Rittal service team and their new consulting services.

Rittal Blue e+ cooling units are currently the most efficient of their kind on the market. The manufacturer is now expanding its range of cooling units with the addition of a device with an output class of 1.6 kW. Besides being 75 percent more energy-efficient than previous cooling solutions on average, the units also excel in terms of connectivity, safety and handling. The new FTTA approval also makes the UL certification process much easier. Blue e+ cooling units with the new output classes are available now.

To date, the Blue e+ cooling unit series from Rittal has offered an output range of 2 to 6 kW. But now, the company will launch compact units in a lower output class – at 1.6 kW. “This advancement enables us to add an important milestone to our Blue e+ cooling unit range and meet market requirements for compact cooling units for efficient enclosure climate control,” explains Steffen Wagner, Climate Control Director at Rittal.

In addition to the cULus listing, Rittal cooling units and fan-and-filter units also have a UL listing in the new “FTTA” (Environmental-rated Accessories for Enclosures) category. “With FTTA approval, the type rating/IP protection class of the climate-controlled enclosure is certified by UL. This means that one of our user group most frequently asked questions has an authoritative response,” says the climate control specialist.

With its Blue e+ cooling unit range, Rittal relies on an innovative, patented hybrid technology. This combines a compressor cooling unit and heat pipe, which provides passive cooling. The control strategy for hybrid operation is a factor that has significant influence on the huge efficiency gains. Moreover, the compression cooling system of the new Blue e+ is range highly energy efficient. Frequency converters precisely adjust the speed of the DC motors for the fans and compressors to achieve the exact cooling output required. They vary the speed of the system’s fans and compressors by voltage control, so allowing the cooling output to be tailored precisely to the requirements at all times. This cuts energy consumption significantly over conventional solutions. “Thanks to the high energy efficiency of new cooling units, savings of up to 75% are possible – as a number of test results show”, Steffen Wagner pointed out.

All these units in the new range can be operated flexibly in all standard grids worldwide thanks to their multi-voltage capability. Permissible input voltage ranges from 110 V (single-phase) to 480 V (three-phase) in conjunction with a mains frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

Precise, variable-output cooling minimises thermal stress on components. Constant temperature fluctuations, such as in the conventional two-point control systems are now a thing of the past. This not only increases the service life of the cooling units and enclosure components, it also means higher process reliability. The new graphical touchscreen control panel displays all key information

at a glance. System messages appear as plain text and are multi-lingual. Standardised communication interfaces ensure easy integration in a production plant’s control systems. With the new IoT interface, Rittal also enables Blue e+ units to link to customer-owned monitoring, energy management and/or superordinate systems via OPC-UA, Profinet, SNMP, Modbus TCP and CANopen, enabling predictive maintenance, data analytics and more.

Climate control of enclosures with water cooling is highly efficient, especially if there is already a central cold water supply available in the production plant. The new Hygienic Design air/water heat exchangers from Rittal are ideally suited to the food industry, where hygiene requirements are exceptionally stringent.

Hygiene is an absolute must in the food industry: Machinery, plant and components must readily withstand daily cleaning with pressure washers and jet steam cleaners. There surfaces must also be easy to clean, and/or designed to prevent contaminants from adhering to them.

Use cooling water to dissipate heat

Liquid cooling of enclosures offers a number of benefits: Because water has a higher thermal capacity than air, liquid cooling can dissipate even large quantities of heat. What is more, industrial environments often already have a central cooling water supply available that can be used for enclosure cooling. All that is left to do is to mount suitable air/water heat exchangers on the enclosure. With Hygienic Design, it is particularly important that no air exchange takes place between the enclosure and the environment.

Rittal has revamped its air/water heat exchangers, and can now offer its clients in the food industry two variants of Hygienic Design. Air/water heat exchangers for wall mounting can supply cooling outputs of either 0.65 kW or 1.2 kW. The hygienic design reduces the risk of contamination in the food industry, thus helping to ensure product safety.

Modified designs

For Hygienic Design, Rittal has modified the design in a number of respects. For example, the attachment to the enclosure wall using threaded bolts and nuts has been designed so that the screw fastening is not visible from the outside. The enclosure is made from stainless steel with a brushed grain size of 400, producing a surface roughness Ra of less than 0.8 μm. The smooth surface finish is easy to clean and disinfect. There are no hard-to-clean gaps where contamination could collect.

The silicone seal between the enclosure and the case prevents the transfer of colourants, flavourings and unwanted odours. The seal eliminates gaps between the air/water heat exchanger and the enclosure which would be difficult to clean. The seals are available as spare parts, and are easily replaced in the event of mechanical damage. The seals are dyed blue in accordance with FDA Guideline 21 CFR 177.2600, making them clearly distinguishable from contaminants such as food residues. The flat seals on the water connection fittings are likewise dyed blue, and geometrically designed to sit flush against the shape of the fitting. A metal end stop prevents compression of the seal, so that edges cannot protrude and allow contaminants or micro-organisms to accumulate.

Tested hygiene

The top of the enclosure tilts forwards by 30 degrees. This typical Hygienic Design feature prevents objects from being deposited on top of the enclosure, while at the same time ensuring that liquids, such as detergents and disinfectants, run off quickly. With protection categories of IP56/59, air/water heat exchangers meet the demanding requirements of pressure washing and steam cleaning.

The air/water heat exchangers have C-UR and CSA approval, making them suitable for international use. The Hygienic Design was tested by the DGUV Food department testing and certification agency in accordance with GS-NV 6 (test principles for hygiene). The devices comply with standard DIN EN ISO 14159:2008 and are suitable for use in the food sector in conformity with DIN EN 1672-2:2009.

Ahmedabad, western India, 4.00 p.m. Deepak Dubey shakes his head as he looks at the congested traffic.

“Nothing’s moving at all,” says the Rittal service engineer. He then carefully weaves his motorbike through the tightly packed tuk tuks, buses and cars. He ignores the other drivers’ honking and cursing – after all, he needs to get to the other side of town as quickly as possible.

“Several cooling units are failing to deliver the necessary cooling output at a textile manufacturer,” explains Dubey. The fall-out is as dramatic as you might expect at over 40 degrees in the shade – overheated control units, outages and production stoppages. “Every minute counts because the customer is losing real money.” Twenty minutes later, the motorbike comes to a screeching halt at the factory door. “Regular maintenance would easily prevent something like this from happening,” says Dubey, before stepping out onto the factory floor. The reason for this is the tightly focused local competition in this country that spans more than 3 million square kilometres. There are hardly any specialist service providers. Instead, in most cases, it’s all-round handy men who fix the air conditioning in factories, offices and people’s homes. “The local businesses’ major advantage is their very close proximity to the customer – along with their unbeatably low prices, of course,” explains Sandeep Ayyappa, Senior Manager India Service. But this isn’t the be all and end all, even on an extremely cost-sensitive market like India.

“Companies that have actually experienced a worst-case scenario look for alternatives,” says Ayyappa. “This is where we come into play.” And that’s also why Rittal has built a comprehensive service network – the first ever supplier to do so. “Our aim was to be present wherever our end customers are,” explains Ayyappa. “We achieved this by extending our service network last year.” Since then, Rittal India, working together with more than 20 partners, has been able to offer a fast and reliable service that stretches from Bangalore to New Delhi. “Customers rely on us having the necessary expertise as a system supplier of control and switchgear engineering,” says Ayyappa. To ensure this also applies to the external service partners, they were first brought up to speed in the training centre Rittal runs in India. “After all, our customers rightly expect the highest standards of quality not only from our products, but also in the service we provide.”

Within 20 days, in Bangalore the cooling technicians learned the essential aspects of installing and servicing climate control solutions. “We built upon and expanded their existing knowledge to enable them to provide customised services for dealing with all kinds of problems and faults,” explains Ayyappa.