The NPE 2015 International Plastics Showcase was held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, March 23-27. The Show attracted 2,029 exhibitors using over 1,128,000 square feet of exhibition space – both figures breaking the all-time NPE records set in 2000. Held once every three years, NPE registered attendance was 65,810 – 19% greater than the 2012 event.
Chiller & Cooling Best Practices® Magazine was the only chiller magazine present at NPE, sharing both literature bin and booth space with Compressed Air Best Practices™ Magazine! We had a fantastic week signing up subscribers, with the help of an excellent shoe-shine service drawing people into the booth. Visitors confirmed chillers are very high on their radar as they try to manage their water and energy consumption. One visitor was a plastics molding company CFO with four factories. He told me chillers are easily in his “top 3” of energy consumers, however, they were just now introducing a formal energy management program to truly understand the costs – and that’s why he’d come to sign up his people for subscriptions!
The chiller industry was very well represented with both their own booths and also in the booths of plastic equipment OEM’s. As an example SIDE, a Barcelona-based PET stretch blow molding machine manufacturer, requires and provides chillers with all their units. Export Sales Manager Josep Jimenez said, “We produce specialty bottles (like mineral water or the Lipton Ice Tea bottle) which are 1 ½ to 2 liters in size.” Visit http://www.bottle-blowing-machines.com. I was only able to talk with a sampling of the exhibitors-my apologies go to the many I didn’t meet with.
SIDE is a Barcelona-based PET stretch blow molding machine manufacturer. Pictured are Josep Jimenez and Vincent Duvernois (left to right).
Negri Bossi, a leading thermoplastic injection molding machine manufacturer, had a Frigel Microgel chiller/temperature control unit and a Bauer N2IT™ Gas Assist Molding System supporting their booth equipment.
Chiller Technology Focused on Plastics
While Frigel is present in many end use markets, the company has truly specialized in process cooling for plastic injection molding, blow molding, thermoforming and extrusions. Their North American headquarters is a 40,000 square foot facility located near Chicago. The company displayed their Ecodry 3DK closed loop adiabatic liquid cooler, designed to reduce water and energy consumption. “As there is no evaporation of process water, the Ecodry 3DK can reduce water use up to 95% vs. a cooling tower,” according to Frigel Global Marketing Manager Al Fosco. “An average 100 ton system can save up to 1 million gallons of water per year.” The unit features an internationally patented adiabatic chamber permitting high temperature ambient condition installation. Energy savings are achieved by the free cooling mode and by brushless, variable speed motors powering the fans. Lou Zavala, Frigel’s National Sales Manager, said the market for energy and water-efficient chillers is in it’s early stages and gaining momentum. “Particularly out West, we are seeing more and more demand for chiller technology able to deliver water and energy savings.” Visit www.frigel.com.
Frigel’s Al Fosco and Lou Zavala (left to right) were presenting the Ecodry 3DK energy and water-saving closed loop adiabatic liquid cooler.
Mokon, founded in 1955 and based in Buffalo, New York states on their web site that their origins lie in providing close temperature control for injection molding machines. To date they have sold over 50,000 machines worldwide. One of their engineers, Jim Tubinis, was kind enough to review their water-based Full Range combination chiller/heating system with me. The Full Range system is available with heating capacities up to 96 kW and up to 40 Ton chilling capacities. Tubinis explained, “Combining a Mokon water system with an Iceman chiller provides a temperature range of -20°F to 300°F (-29°C to 149°C).” In addition, Mokon can supply custom higher temperature systems up to 600°F (315°C). Tubinis continued, “The Free Range unit has been designed for applications requiring a wide variety of temperatures (both heating and cooling), plants with multi-zone processes and where water supplies are not accessible.” Visit www.mokon.com.
Mokon Technical Sales Engineer, Jim Tubinis, next to their water-based Full Range combination chiller/heating system.
Multistack is a Wisconsin-based chiller manufacturer with a demonstrated track record of focusing on energy efficiency. Their product literature says they invented the modular water chiller and I’ve been seeing them for a number of years at the shows produced by the Association of Energy Engineers. At their booth, Regional Manager Andy Booth informed me I was looking at an innovation from Copeland, their new 15 Ton variable speed drive refrigeration compressor integrated into their new MP Series water-cooled chillers for process applications. “We are using the 15 Ton VSD with a 15 Ton fixed speed compressor allowing us to do accurate load matching,” said Booth. “This 15 Ton VSD unit is the largest VSD unit Copeland has manufactured and we use it in our 30-80 ton dual circuit designs.” The MP can also be ordered in a 10-40 ton single circuit design. Visit www.multistack.com.
Andy Patton, from Multistack, next to their new MP10-80 ton chiller featuring 15 Ton VSD and fixed speed refrigeration compressors.
Reinforcing the Importance of Chiller Reliability and Water Quality
Advantage Engineering, based in Greenwood, Indiana, is a market-leading supplier of industrial heat transfer products including water chillers, temperature control units and evaporative cooling towers. Established in 1977, Advantage operates out of a campus of three manufacturing buildings and one warehouse with over 100,000 square feet under roof. The company annually manufactures more than 1,000 portable chillers, 100 central chillers and 2,000 temperature control units. Their Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Jon Gunderson, told me most of their customers primarily seek out their products due to the reliability of their machines. “We can provide our clients with all the energy efficiency features they require,” Gunderson said. “Their main purchasing driver, however, is reliability so their processes are always supported and optimized with the right temperatures.” For some one like me so focused on energy and water conservation, it’s always good to get reminded that a day or three of down-time in some plants, can wipe out a years worth of savings! Reliability is, of course, the base point. Visit www.advantageengineering.com.
Jon Gunderson from Advantage Engineering.
Ecochillers Inc., based in Guadalajara, Mexico and with sales/warehousing in Miami and Laredo, presented their Ecogreen® compact VFDEC Series chillers. Booth representatives told me it had variable speed refrigeration compressors and fan motors allowing clients to do a better job of matching energy consumption with load profiles. The completely electronically-controlled chillers are offered with rotary screw compressors and can be water-cooled or dry coolers with free cooling modules. Visit www.ecochillers.com.
Plastic processing machinery requires the removal of solid particles suspended in the process cooling water before it enters their machine. You have to filter that process cooling water and Orival was there with a great cut-away of their ORV Series automatic self-cleaning water filters. The company claims this filter line can slash backwash water use by 90%. “Backwash is the water used to rinse out a filter clogged with solids,” said Orival’s Steve Fournier. “The ORV is designed for low flow rates of up to 27 gpm and requires only 1-2 gallons per rinse cycle.” Visit www.orival.com.
Steve Fournier from Orival.
There were a number of other chiller and water treatment companies represented with booths I unfortunately did not have the time to meet. They included BERG, Smardt, ONI, Tekleen, Process Cooling, Kiltech and Euro Chiller. Overall, NPE is an incredible show and I would recommend it to any exhibitor or visitor.
Ecogreen® chillers feature electronically controlled variable speed drive refrigeration compressors and fan motors.
Euro Chiller from Italy
Source: coolingbestpractices