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Drives, motors and power transmission, couplings, clutches
News Release from: ABB Automation Tech (Drives and Motors) | Subject: High-efficiency electric motors
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 January 2005
High efficiency motors save energy costs
High-efficiency electric motors are saving a leading supplier of bakery products over GBP 10,000 a year in energy costs and a further GBP 5,000 in spare parts.
High-efficiency electric motors are saving a leading supplier of bakery products over GBP 10,000 a year in energy costs and a further GBP 5,000 in spare parts Cereform is the only manufacturer of soya flour in the UK and produces around 12,000 tonnes a year at its site in Royston
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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It has some 120 motors on site and is gradually phasing out its older models in favour of high-efficiency alternatives.
Most recently, ABB Motor Service Partner, Heasell Electromechanical Services, supplied 18 high-efficiency AC motors from ABB to run nine flour mills.
Each mill uses two 22-kilowatt motors to turn the 80-kilogram plates that grind the soya beans.
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The site runs 24 hours a day during the week and the old motors were causing a real maintenance headache.
"Failure of the old motors was a major concern and repairing them was a major cost," says site engineer Rory Perks.
He estimates that Cereform was spending around GBP 5,000 a year on replacement parts associated with the old motors.
"Reliability is now excellent and the new motors are virtually maintenance free," he adds.
Perks also estimates that the 18 EFF1 motors are saving over GBP 10,000 a year in energy, thanks to their high-efficiency performance.
EFF1 is the highest efficiency category for motors sold in Europe.
EU officials estimate that replacing all the inefficient EFF3 motors now in use across the Union with standard-efficiency EFF2 versions would yield energy savings of 6TWh, or GBP 200m a year.
Even higher savings would result from the increased use of the highest-efficiency, EFF1, motors.
High-efficiency motors are typically more reliable than low efficiency versions.
This is partly because they waste less energy as heat, which degrades the motor windings.
Windings are second only to bearings in terms of the number of breakdowns they cause.
Theoretically, a reduction of 10 -15 deg C in the running temperature will double the life of the winding.
The normal running temperature in high quality motors running at full load can be as low as 60-80 deg C, while lower quality motors frequently run in excess of 90 deg C.
According to Perks, the windings on Cereform's old motors didn't often fail completely, but when they did they had to be sent away to be rewound, which cost the plant GBP 1,400 and several days of downtime.
Service and support were other important factors in Cereform's decision.
"I have received excellent service and support from Heasell over many years," says Perks.
"However, they still had to be very competitive on price.".
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