Cooling Tower Pump and Fan Control for Chemical Industry

Cool thing: Pump control for a cooling tower in the USA

Summer in New Jersey can be pretty hot, as the technicians from SOURCETRONIC also experienced. The new plant belongs to the Troy Corporation, a specialist for surface coatings, plastics and additives. The chemical company chose SOURCETRONIC as its partner for the electrification of the technology. The result is a controllable cooling system with control cabinet and visualization according to individual requirements – a successful cooperation in an international environment.

Cooling tower system with container for highest demands

The business of the Troy Corporation is going well, not to say: The plants are running hot. This happens quite literally, because a lot of waste heat is generated during the production of wood preservatives, industrial plastics and the like. The problem of limited production capacity has now been solved by a new cooling tower. The American chemical company was happy to call on SOURCETRONIC’s expertise, because pumps are at the heart of the plant.

These pumps perform an important task, as they maintain the cooling circuit: The water is atomized in the tower and cooled with the help of fans. A key wish of the plant operators was to be able to regulate the cooling capacity. This for two reasons: Flexible control allows different production loads and reduces energy requirements to a minimum. This was realized with a system completely wired and electrified by ST.

For this purpose, the technicians from Bremen installed a control cabinet next to the tower, which was planned and developed in Germany. In the future, the PLC TIA S7 1500 programmable logic controller will regulate the performance of the pumps from there. In addition, the entire process is intuitively visualized via Tia using HMI. As a result, the chemists not only have an overview of the cooling circuit at all times, they can also intervene if necessary.

From planning to commissioning of the pump control

How can a large cooling plant be adapted to the demanding requirements of a modern chemical company? This was the challenge the ST technicians faced at the beginning of the planning phase. The solution was clear: This is only possible with individually programmed and installed technology. Therefore, the PLC was programmed in Bremen specifically for the needs of the American customer. Subsequently, the appropriate control cabinet was built and finally installed on site. In addition, SOURCETRONIC took over the cabling and thus the entire electrification of the plant. As usual, the technicians remained on site until commissioning, so that they could witness the successful start-up of the new cooling system. Of course, the operator received complete documentation at the end. The entire process was carried out in close consultation with the cooling tower builder.

Pump control: a specialty of SOURCETRONIC

Every cooling tower places its own demands on the technology installed. SOURCETRONIC recognized this at an early stage and therefore implements individual solutions for cooling tower builders. Elementary components are the pump and fan controls that regulate the process. The example of Troy Corporation shows how precisely the ST technicians can respond to the respective requirements with visualization and programming of the PLC. Are you interested in a similar solution? Your consultant looks forward to hearing from you personally.