Free Cooling Helps Family Engineering Business Expansion Strategy

When a family run engineering company needed to add extra cooling capacity to their plastic extrusion process, it seemed the ideal time to incorporate the energy saving benefits of Free Cooling into their new system.

Our client, based in the North of England, specialises in extruding plastic to produce brush filaments. Due to an increase in product demand they embarked on a project to increase the capacity and speed of their production facility. Key to this strategy was the introduction of an additional extruding line which subsequently changed their cooling requirements.

Historically our client had achieved all the cooling they needed for their production by natural cooling. Put simply, water from a pond outside of their factory was sprayed up into the air. This fountain effect removed the heat from the water which provide sufficient cooling for their existing set up.

However, their upgraded process needed much more accurate temperature control. Whilst giving increased speed and accuracy, the new extrusion machine required a guaranteed 15°C water supply. The existing natural cooling wouldn’t achieve this level of cooling, meaning mechanical cooling needed to come into play.

The Aqua solution included:

• 136kW air cooled water chiller
• 136kW free cooler
• Supply only basis with full technical support
• Commissioning

As an engineering specialist, our client had all the skills needed to install the equipment in-house, so Aqua offered a supply only basis.

Sales Manager, Shaun Lancaster, explains; “We supplied the equipment and a technical drawing, and the client did the rest themselves. Our engineers visited site for final commissioning and my client knew we were on hand during the install process to help if needed. For me this is a great example of how versatile Aqua Cooling are as a supply partner. We offer full installations with mechanical and electric works but are equally happy to work on a supply only basis.”