How many times have you heard someone say about a machine “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”? Probably too many times, when the truth is often the reverse. Plastic container maker PrimePac in Northern Ireland discovered this recently when replacing a failing drive and motor package gave then a 60% percent fall in energy costs and 30 percent higher output.

Located to the north west of Belfast, PrimPac specializes in continuous extrusion blow moulding to manufacture a range of plastic bottles, containers and jars together with closures, pumps, sprays and various accessories.

Replacing hydraulic motor

A worn out hydraulic motor on a 23 year-old blow moulding machine at their plant was using excessive energy and producing inaccurate speed holding, leading to poor quality plastic bottles.

They were facing two separate problems. First was the declining product quality of their old blow moulding machine. The second was that they wanted to install a new extruder but lacked the power capacity, which meant that they would need to invest on an upgrade on their power supply.

Energy appraisal

An energy appraisal carried out by ABB authorized value provider, revealed a potential energy saving of up to 30 percent by replacing the hydraulic motor with a synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) and drive package. The energy appraisal showed that the power use was erratic and consumption was high due to the hydraulic pack requiring extra torque on start up. Product quality was restored.

Savings more than expected

However, once the SynRM package was installed the real energy saving peaked at 60 percent, realising an expected payback period of less than 12 months for the 55 kW, IE4 SynRM and variable speed drive package

The additional savings meant PrimePac avoided a £250,000 upgrade of its 600 kVA electrical supply, needed to power an additional all-electric blow moulding machine for producing a new type of medicine bottle.

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