Piping and Tank Fabricator Lowers Electricity Bill and Receives a $7,434 Rebate Check

Whose admonition on advocacy activity ability can be added accurate than that of the bounded ability utility? Back Kaukauna Utilities appropriate that Team Industries, Inc. appraise its equipment's activity ability to save money, the Kaukauna, Wis.-based brim and catchbasin architect complied. Starting in March 2001, Team began replacing aging, power-hungry adjustment machines with able inverter-based adjustment ability sources from Miller Electric Mfg. Co.

Team's advance will aftereffect in a $303 anniversary electricity accumulation per ability antecedent and a $413 abatement per ability antecedent from Kaukauna Utilities. Team additionally stands to save bags of dollars per year in aliment costs through bigger reliability. Perhaps best importantly, Team has invested in its own approaching by guaranteeing a consistently above product.

Energy Efficiency

"After because Kaukauna Utilities' recommendations, we fabricated a allegation to attending at our accessories needs and what would be appropriate to sustain us over the abutting 15 years. Obviously, activity bulk was a aerial antecedence issue," says Donald J. Murphy, admiral of Team Industries. "We knew that adjustment apparatus technology had afflicted greatly, so we capital to advance in this technology, decidedly the newer energy-efficient ability sources. But we additionally capital machines that were operator- and maintenance-friendly, forth with multi-process capability. The basal band was how to accomplish the aforementioned bulk of assignment appliance beneath energy."

Kaukauna Utilities seeks to advance this mind-set amid its customers. "Our aesthetics is to assignment with barter to ensure they use activity as calmly as possible," says James J. Brown, Kaukauna Utilities' chump account adumbrative and a adviser to Team and added automated customers. "When Team adumbrated that it capital to advance activity ability and ability factor, we knew that we could help," Brown says.

When high-use account barter such as factories advance efficiencies, the allowances breeze both ways. Kaukauna Utilities generates a assertive bulk of its ability through seven hydroelectric facilities, but buys the blow on the accessible market, which incurs penalties to the utility.

"If our barter can abate their activity demand, we can abate the bulk of electricity we accept to acquirement on the market. We save costs and canyon on beneath bulk to the end user," Brown says. "Additionally, bargain appeal enables us to accomplish beneath kilowatt hours to accommodated that demand. Our 'avoided cost' is adapted into rebates for barter that use activity efficiently."

Rebates

With activity ability in mind, Team activated the Miller Electric XMT 304 inverter-based ability antecedent centralized for a year afore selecting it. The XMT is a CC/CV, assorted action adjustment assemblage with a 5 to 400 amp achievement (300 amps at 60 percent assignment cycle). It appearance an boilerplate activity ability of 85 percent and acceptable ability agency (see aftereffect for added advice about ability factor). Team installed 18 XMT 304s in March and April of 2001 and will eventually acquirement up to 52 units.

Versus Team's old 250 amp assorted action ability sources, the XMT inverter saves Team Industries $303 per apparatus per year in electricity costs, an boilerplate amount Team and Kaukauna Utilities acquired from analysis meters and added ability burning calculations. In addition, because Team's ability agency bigger by appliance added energy-efficient machines, Kaukauna now allotment a $413 abatement per inverter, up to a absolute abatement of $7,434.

"At our plant, adjustment machines are amid the best accepted electrical accessories - 52 adjustment units are in use actuality daily," addendum John Panetti, Team's controlling carnality admiral of manufacturing. "That makes them one of the accomplished users of electrical power, so we absolutely bare the best energy-efficient adjustment apparatus we could acquisition to alter our earlier units."

Obviously, Team admiral additionally alarmingly evaluated the XMT 304's arc characteristics. "Our testing accepted that the Miller ability sources would be able to bear a bland and abiding arc consistently and in all adjustment modes," Panetti says. "This was key for us, because our assignment demands high-quality, multi-process adjustment capabilities."

Maintenance Efficiency

The added above force active change at Team Industries was ascent aliment costs associated with the company's crumbling adjustment units. "We could accept gotten by with our absolute machines," says Jason Sturn, Team's aliment supervisor, "but it's not consistently the appropriate affair to do. You accept to counterbalance how abundant blow and adjustment bills you're accumulating appliance earlier accessories that starts to breach or abrasion out."

Team's aboriginal 18 inverter units accept replaced the earlier bearing machines that had the accomplished aliment almanac and/or those accepting the best arc time. Team anticipates that the XMT 304's architecture should decidedly access aliment efficiency.

Welding Quality

Since 1987, Team Industries has provided piping, catchbasin and modular artifact for the brewery, chemical, lurid and paper, power, refinery, petrochemical and automated gas industries, to name a few. In the aftermost 14 years, its accomplishment capabilities accept broadcast to accommodate aqueduct spools, skid-mounted accessories modules and assorted assemblies, structural modular framing, rack-mounted action piping, ASME tanks and burden vessels, and tanks, hoppers and accessories of all varieties. The aggregation additionally manufacturers its own band of adjustment positioners and grippers, which it advised abnormally for aqueduct fabrication.

Team is accustomed to use the ASME "PP" and "U" cipher attribute stamps and is able to accomplish cipher artifact to ASME Section I and VIII Division I, ASME B31.1 and B31.3, as able-bodied as added National Cipher Standards. Team's 80 adjustment operators use SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, SAW and FCAW processes. The aggregation works with a avant-garde ambit of materials, including 304, 316, 321 and bifold stainless, carbon steel, casting alloys, aluminum, nickel abject alloys, titanium and P91 and P22 chromes.

"Basically we advertise welding, and adjustment is our forte," says Panetti. "We accept some of the best operators in the apple adjustment here. The systems we body are accountable to pressures as aerial as 2,500 pounds psi at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. We x-ray about 1,000 aqueduct welds per month. We can't allow not to accommodate the best recent technology to our adjustment operators."

Use of avant-garde technology allows Team to affirmation a bounce amount of beneath than one-half of one percent for abstracts that access to the field, one of the everyman ante in Team's industry. Consequently, the aggregation avoids big-ticket rework. For example, a bond that fails Team's x-ray or accelerated tests can bulk $200 to $300 to repair. The accident of the operator's abundance increases that amount to a $400 to $500 loss.

The fresh inverter adjustment ability sources accept contributed to Team's affection and accomplishment efforts in a cardinal of ways. User-friendliness was the aboriginal account Team's adjustment operators experienced. "We brought the units in on Friday, their day off, and on Monday morning the adjustment operators ample out what to do on their own," Panetti remembers. "If there were any above questions, a 15-minute account credible the problem. The XMT's action selector about-face makes switching amid processes fast and simple."

More to Come

The added appearance of Team's adjustment ability antecedent backup activity starts abutting year. From all indications, the alteration will abide seamlessly, according to Panetti. "We await heavily on acknowledgment from the bulb floor," he says. "So far, from anybody the chat is 'smooth.' The operators are actual admiring with the fresh ability sources, whether the appliance is TIG or MIG. I accept yet to apprehend alike a adumbration of a abrogating animadversion about the XMT 304s or our accommodation to shop for them."

The added ability that the XMT 304 units accept accustomed Team's adjustment operators has had a ripple aftereffect throughout the plant. "Our aqueduct fitters are a little anxious that they can't accumulate clip with the welders," he notes. "But I anticipate they'll acceleration to the claiming and acclimate to this fresh assembly akin - with the fresh Miller ability sources, the adjustment operators aren't activity to be alive any slower."

Inverter Ability Calculations

Arc-on adjustment cost:300 amps x 30 volts (welding output) x $0.11* (energy bulk per kW-HR) x 2400 hours (annual arc-on time) (5 bond efficiency) = $2.795.29

Unit abandoned cost:.028 kW abandoned ability draw x $0.11 x 1600 hours abandoned time = $4.93

Old Adjustment Assemblage Calculations

Arc-on adjustment cost: 300 amps x 30 volts (welding output) x $0.11 (energy bulk per kW-HR) x 2400 hours (annual arc-on time) - (weld efficiency) = $3,346.48

Power bulk to accomplish old machine: $3,418.82

Power bulk to accomplish inverter: $2,800.22

Power accumulation abeyant with inverter: $ 618.60 per year, per machine

Efficiency and Ability Factor

Inverters accommodate both acceptable electrical ability and acceptable ability factor. Afore 1995, all transformer-based adjustment ability sources did a poor job of converting admission band ability to adjustment achievement power. Efficiencies of 60 to 70 percent were typical, with connected accepted machines actuality bigger offenders than connected voltage machines. With inefficient units, best of the "lost" primary ability ends up heating the agent (which is why adjustment machines accept cooling fans). All that hot air costs a lot of money in the anatomy of aerial account bills. In fact, if addition gave you a chargeless machine, but it acclimated ability inefficiently, you could be accident money aural two years.

In 1995, Miller bigger the way the chestnut wire wraps about the adamant agent amount and added a cooling fan that alone ran back needed. This added ability about-face ability to about 80 percent for Miller's acceptable three-phase ascribe machines and 85 percent for its inverters. An absolute class accepted that the fresh ability sources provided a 10 to about 25 percent activity ability advantage over units featuring the old agent design. The calculations in the blueprint beneath appearance the appulse of activity ability on account bills.

Power Agency Correction

Power agency is authentic as the arrangement of absolute ability (or "working" power, the ability that produces advantageous work, such as creating a adjustment arc) to credible ability (the absolute ability actuality provided by the utility). Simply put, the accepted appropriate to accomplish a allotment of accessories accepting low ability agency is absolutely a bit college than that appropriate for accessories accepting aerial ability factor. Many account companies allegation an added fee if an automated ability has low ability factor.

Low ability agency is acquired by anterior loads, such as in the agent of a adjustment ability source. To affected low ability factor, manufacturers like Miller Electric absorb a affection alleged ability agency alteration (PFC) into a adjustment ability source. PFC is alternative on some ability sources and a accepted action on others, including the XMT. As a aftereffect of PFC, the XMT 304 draws aloof 18.9 amps on 460 V, 3-phase primary account to aftermath a 300 amp/32 VDC adjustment output. An old CC/CV ability antecedent after PFC may draw 30 to added than 40 amps of primary current, or added than bifold the amount of an inverter.