The Platform One Drive by SAEL is the unique system which combines cost-savings and best performance ever
After rebuilding the PM1 and PM2 drives, SACI Paper Mill, assigned to SAEL the rebuilding of PM3 - installing the first water-cooled sectional drive system in Europe.
Fulfilling the mission voted to the “Spirit of Improving”, SAEL applied the know-how achieved along the Tunnel Boring Machines experience, to their massive production drives.
The working environment in which the inverters work in this sector, are among the most severe that can be encountered: very small spaces, strong vibrations and high temperatures due to the fact that they are placed in the vicinity of the eight 400Kw engines that carry out the rotation of the main drill, have driven our research and development team to create a water-cooled drive, extremely reliable, compact and strongly immune to thermal and mechanical shock; applied in well-protected environments such as the paper mill, just a few months after start-up, it allowed SAEL to sleep peacefully and to encourage massively the paper mills to be led towards this technology.
The technological gap
“The liquid cooled drives of SAEL, practically without tangential fans (one each inverter), also allowed us to remove all the ventilation normally mounted on every door of the electrical cabinet. The new electrical cabinets where our panels are installed, previously obligatorily and abundantly conditioned, today become normal rooms, since the system becomes independently cooled. The double-sided electrical panels, where the inverters are mounted, have closed air recirculation ensuring no contamination of dust, humidity and air acidity; they preserve over time, and in a perfect manner electronic, electromechanical and various components”, said Paolo Andrighetti, SAEL Sales Manager Paper Division.
The experience gained on the subject by the Tunnel Boring Machines and the excellent performance monitored over the years due above all to energy saving, will allow SACI Paper Mill to save about Euro 60,000 a year, eliminating the need for maintenance of the air conditioners and fans.
For this reason and for the significant reduction of the dimensions that the system has obtained, driven by the continuous research of innovation of SACI Paper Mill in the search for products and systems with high technology and energy saving, SAEL has made the first Water-Cooled plant in the paper mill sector.
In December 2018, respecting the tight deadlines of the stop, thanks to the organization and team spirit with the technical staff of SAEL – paper mill, the company started the new paper machine sectional control along with the many mechanical transformations that have been carried out on the paper machine as well as having modified and also started-up the VARIDUR rewinder, reconditioned in mechanical and safety terms.
The drive system dealt with the management of 46 AC motors of about 2MW of installed power; the realization, unique in its kind and coordinated with our DCS in Drive, both in paper machine and in rewinder, was strongly desired to equip the paper mill with all the qualities that SAEL Platform One offers today in the market.
