Technology park companies drive down electricity costs

Following a successful trial at the Corus Stocksbridge site, two companies based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham are collaborating to provide industry with a system designed to cut costs and make lower carbon manufacturing processes a reality.

Sensdata and Drive Management Systems (DMS) are developing a monitoring system that enables the reduction of plant downtime, energy wastage and CO₂ emissions. The SensSlip System automatically monitors slippage in drive belts, which are widely used in manufacturing equipment.

In a trial at the Corus facility, the system revealed that thousands of pounds in energy costs could be saved.

Energy Services Engineer at Corus, Chris Spenceley said: “We have a number of heat treatment furnaces at the site with combustion air and fume extraction fans, which are powered by large motors. We therefore have lots of vee-belts.

“In critical areas we can’t afford them to fail, and therefore we change the belts twice a year during planned shut downs.”

In one sample period of monitoring a belt, over four days of continuous running, Sensdata confirmed the transmission drive was only running at times at 82% efficiency. This could equate to more than £9,000 of energy wastage. Accepted industry parameters are that vee-belts should provide peak efficiency of between 95-98% when first installed.