ABB anti-jam software saves maintenance costs
An
ABB Automation Tech (Drives and Motors) product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Sep 28, 2009
ABB anti-jam software is saving GBP6,000 a year on maintenance for Anglian Water at its Stanbridgeford Wastewater Treatment Works in Bedfordshire.
Anglian Water was suffering frequent ragging of the two 55kW dry well pumps at the site.
The pumps would rag up once a week, requiring staff to lift, clean and replace the pumps in the well.
As Stanbridgeford is unmanned, staff had to travel to the site, adding to costs, taking them away from their normal work and having a knock-on effect at other sites.
The two pumps worked on a 24-hour duty cycle and were each driven by a 55kW ABB industrial drive.
Paul Stafford of ABB Drives Alliance member, Sentridge Controls, was asked to look at the problem and recommend a solution.
'We had used ABB's anti-jam software on other similar installations with the same problem before and knew it could offer benefits to Anglian Water's application,' he said.
The ABB anti-jam software is part of its Intelligent Pump Control (IPC) software.
An add-on to ABB industrial drives, IPC contains all the common functions needed by water and waste utilities, industrial plants and other pump users.
The anti-jam software performs a number of cleaning cycles every time the pump starts.
Each cycle consists of a series of rapid ramp ups in forward and reverse directions.
Taking one to two minutes to complete, the cleaning cycle removes the debris from around the pump volute, preventing it from entering the pump and blocking it when the pump ramps up from zero to its normal operating speed.
One of the pumps had the software installed in February and was in operation for six weeks without a single incidence of ragging.
The other pump, without the software installed, continued to suffer ragging and needed to be lifted and cleaned twice.
Steve Richardson, area energy engineer for Anglian, said: 'The other pump had the software installed in March and since then we have had no ragging problems from either pump.
'We have only lifted the pumps once just to check on their condition,' he added.
This is saving Anglian Water an estimated GBP6,000 a year in maintenance costs.
The lack of ragging and the subsequent increase in operational time mean that Anglian Water has the opportunity to run the pumps at a lower speed or for less time and still achieve the desired pumping volumes.
'We are currently looking at the prospects for using the anti-jam software on some other sites in Norfolk, and we will be able to log the efficiency data both before and after installation to show how efficiency has improved,' said Adam Brookes, of Anglian Water.
Not what you're looking for? Search the site.
Google Ads
Contact ABB Automation Tech (Drives and Motors)
Related Stories
- PTC supplies personalised modelling software
- Guill provides flow analysis software
- Solidworks enables students to access CAD software
- Tobacco company to implement Wonderware solutions
- Softinway announces Tusas Axstream contract
Browse by category
-
Capital Equipment (3,471)
- Capital Equipment (1)
- Compressors and Air Treatment (529)
- Electrical hardware (131)
- Electronics Manufacturing, Tools, Instruments (192)
- Machinery and Production Equipment (1,119)
- Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment (471)
- Production line blowers and fans (69)
- Robotics, Handling and Storage (959)
- Consultancy and Services (916)
-
Control and Instrumentation (5,097)
- Cabling, Conduit, Signal Conditioning (811)
- CNC and Motion Controllers (188)
- Control and Instrumentation (2)
- HMIs/Operator Interfaces (296)
- Logic Controllers, Timers and Relays (96)
- Mid-range and Large PLCs (202)
- Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications (1,195)
- Plantwide control (1,346)
- Power Supplies, Uninterruptible Power (571)
- Smaller-Sized PLCs (390)
-
Drives, Motors and Controls (3,416)
- Drives, Motors and Controls (2)
- Industrial Drives/Controls (1,288)
- Industrial Motors (500)
- Linear Drives and Motors (118)
- Precision Motors and Gears (425)
- Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls (1,081)
-
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4,262)
- Batteries, chargers and circuit protection (573)
- Connectors, Terminals, Busbars, Slip Rings (705)
- Electrical and Electronic Components (644)
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (3)
- Electrical and Electronic Subassemblies (374)
- Enclosures and Equipment Cooling Fans (716)
- Knobs, Handles and Enclosure Hardware (428)
- PCs and Embedded Systems (819)
-
Engineering Design Software (6,305)
- 2D CAD software (202)
- 3D CAD software (1,175)
- CAM, CNC, production management software (576)
- Data, document management software (319)
- Electrical design software (165)
- Engineering Design Software (15)
- FEA and structural analysis software (375)
- File conversion software, data capture (358)
- Fluid, thermal, noise, vibration software (338)
- Materials design and moulding design software (152)
- Maths, charting, statistics, QA software (324)
- PLM and collaboration software (656)
- Process, instrumentation, automation software (268)
- Publishing and documentation software (234)
- Rendering, visualisation, styling software (205)
- Simulation, modelling, validation software (943)
-
Engineering Industry News, Resources (6,191)
- Electronic Resources for Engineers (278)
- Engineering Business News, Views (388)
- Engineering Conferences (435)
- Engineering Education, Resources, Standards (849)
- Engineering Exhibitions, Events (573)
- Engineering Guides, Newsletters (365)
- Engineering Industry Developments, Awards (636)
- Engineering Industry News, Resources (4)
- Engineering Industry Reports, Surveys (597)
- Engineering Recruitment, Employment (219)
- Engineering Seminars (412)
- Engineering Training Courses (454)
- Health and Safety Consultancy, Software (179)
- Health and Safety Events, Training, News (284)
- Health and Safety Legislation (403)
- Health and Safety Strategy, Risk Assessment (115)
- Machine Building (4,602)
-
Materials and Processing (3,017)
- Materials and components (2,256)
- Materials and Processing (5)
- Materials processing and testing (291)
- Rapid Prototyping (465)
-
Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (5,604)
- Data Acquisition Hardware and PC I/O Boards (484)
- Data acquisition Software and Communications (502)
- Data loggers (424)
- Electrical and Electronic Testing, PAT Equipment (640)
- Form/co-ordinate, optical, vision instruments (755)
- Gauges, Indicators and Instruments (448)
- Materials testing equipment (427)
- Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (1)
- Telecomms/network test equipment, software etc (158)
- Testing and Calibration Services and Information (514)
- Testing, analysing and monitoring equipment (1,251)
-
Powertrain Design (3,684)
- Bearings (971)
- Chains and belts (333)
- Gears, brakes, couplings and engines (1,465)
- Hydraulic Components (473)
- Lubricants (438)
- Powertrain Design (3)
-
Sensors (7,219)
- Accelerometers and Vibration Sensors (444)
- Barcode Sensors (103)
- Flowmeters and Flow Sensors (634)
- Gas, Chemical, Radiation, Magnetic Sensors (288)
- Humidity and Environmental Sensors (155)
- Level Sensors and Leak Detectors (533)
- Linear Position Sensors (411)
- Loadcells, Force Sensors, Torque Sensors (722)
- Pressure sensors (634)
- Proximity Sensors (710)
- Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors (559)
- Sensors (10)
- Temperature sensors (617)
- Vision and Colour Sensors (1,399)
- Small Mechanical Components, Joining, Tools (2,011)
- Valves, Pumps, Process Hardware (3,693)
