ABB rescues chipboard manufacturer's biggest fan

Tens of thousands of pounds worth of lost production at chipboard manufacturer Sonae Industria, Merseyside, has been saved by ABB Drives Alliance Partner Central Electrical.

Tens of thousands of pounds worth of lost production at chipboard manufacturer Sonae Industria, Merseyside, has been saved by ABB Drives Alliance Partner Central Electrical.

When Sonae's main 1MW variable speed drive, used for the main dryer in the wood preparation area, went out of action due to a short circuit, Central quickly traced the fault.

However, as there was no service agreement between Central Electrical and Sonae Industria at the time, parts were not available locally for this unusually large drive.

Central found replacement parts, on a Saturday, in Finland, helped fly them into Speke airport and organised engineers to fit the parts on arrival.

"The fault was due to condensation in the drive; it was raining heavily and our air conditioning wasn't working at the time", recalls Electrical Manager John McNerlin.

"We are a 24/365 operation and downtime costs us GBP 10,000 per hour.

This means, that the 48-hour period that the drive was out of action cost us GBP 480,000 in lost production.

Central's swift action saved us at least a day, avoiding the loss of a further GBP 240,000.

In that perspective, the fact that we had to charter a plane for GBP 17,000 wasn't that big a deal".

Sonae's service agreement with Central Electrical now ensures that an engineer will be on site within four hours in the case of emergency callouts, and that spares are stocked locally.

Central also supplies all new drives and motors and helps with the planned maintenance of existing plant.

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