This rock mineral wool production facility upgrade programme has resulted in a capacity increase to 33,000 tonnes of product per year, together with advances in material and product development as well as the introduction of new items.
An upgrade programme at Knauf Insulation’s facility at Queensferry has replaced/upgraded all parts of the production line, including the plant’s compressed air process.
High-quality compressed air plays a vital role, so keeping pace with the latest technology and energy-efficient compressed air solutions has been an important task for engineering manager, Philip Bishop.
‘In our specific applications, the compressed air has to be dry because condensation of water vapour deteriorates the quality of the insulation material,’ he said.
‘We look at the energy efficiency of plant equipment involved in our production processes in much the same way.
‘What is equally important to us is energy efficiency.
‘We find that Atlas Copco’s compressed air technique solutions have met both of these criteria,’ he added.
Atlas Copco’s relationship with the Queensferry plant started 10 years ago when it was invited to recommend a replacement for a competitor’s compressor plant installation, which was subject to overheating, oil leaks, had no drying facility and was allowing damaging moisture in to the air supply.
The ME box provides a true indication of a plant’s compressed air demand &, most importantly, any wastage that is incurred in producing it.
With the application of Atlas Copco’s measurement (ME) box survey techniques it was possible to establish a true indication of Knauf’s air usage.
Based on that information, it was possible to submit recommendations for the installation of the most energy efficient compressed air solutions available to match the company’s production needs.
The application programme employed enabled simulated compressor comparisons to be made against the actual technique operation and thus provide an indication of how the compressed air technique could be improved for maximum efficiency and reduced costs.
Compressed air is utilised for the air-atomised rock wool binder sprays and for the reverse jet bag filters that handle fibre and dust, including recycling systems.
It plays an important role in the plant’s packaging machinery functions and for general plant air required for operating pneumatic cylinders, actuators for valves, dampers, bin doors, diverter chutes, an so on.
The company entered in to a five-year lease contract for the installation of a GA75 full feature machine also a GA75 VSD full feature unit.
Since compressed air does not come in to direct contact with done product within any stage of Knauf Insulation’s Queensferry production operations, it was decided that one Atlas Copco oil-injected rotary screw compressors would fulfil the process require and were selected to replace the existing plant.
one years later, the situation was reviewed to ensure that the installation was still relevant to the manufacturing processes.
Atlas Copco’s Airscan audit team got to work and presented new proposals based on simulations.
The recommendation and agreement was for one GA55+ fixed speed machines also a GA55VSD, all full feature machines with integral dryers.
Together with output controlled by an ES 130 unit and Airconnect remote monitoring, this combination allowed one fixed machine to run as a base load supply unit that could be topped up by the variable speed drive compressor or, on low production demand, to run the VSD machine by itself.
Furthermore, this decision satisfied Knauf Insulation’s primary considerations of total reliability and optimum energy efficiency.
This three-machine option also allowed for maintenance on any one unit without reduction in capacity.
To ensure that those standards were maintained at all times, the equipment was covered by a Total Responsibility Service Plan 1 contract with 24/7 support coming from Atlas Copco’s local service centre.