4 British Paper Machinery News


Compact’s power


management improved


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ompact Engineering Ltd has made improvements to the energy efficiency and utility of its dryers with changes in the way that the electricity is handled and the thyristors are controlled in their power control cabinets.


Compact has developed the UPF thyristor controller that delivers a number of benefits to its customers. The main gain is that the UPF thyristor controller runs the dryers with very nearly unity power factor, hence the UPF tag. Running at unity power factor is desirable for a number of reasons. Firstly, for those mills reliant on the grid for their electricity, they will only pay for the power that they use. A low power factor causes a higher current flow for a given power requirement and this increases the metered KVA consumption, leading


to higher charges. Secondly, improving the power factor improves the load carrying capabilities of the power circuits as amperage is reduced for a given power demand. The third benefit is the ability to benefit from the full supply voltage. With a low power factor, the amperage increases and this causes a voltage drop in the conductors in the system. Running at a unity power factor means that there is no voltage drop, so the dryers are able to supply more drying energy to the web. The fourth advantage is that there are fewer system conductor losses. System conductor losses are proportional to the current squared. The current reduces in direct proportion to the power factor improvements, so the losses are inversely proportional to the square


of the power factor. The final reason to aim for unity power factor is that only drawing the power that is needed means that the generator only has to supply that requirement. Anything less than unity power factor means that the generator needs to burn more fuel for the same end result so there is an environmental benefit too. Additional to the benefits of unity power factor, the Compact UPF thyristor controller also starts the lamps in a controlled fashion that maximises lamp life. The lamps are started at a reasonably low voltage to warm the filament to help build some resistance before taking the lamps to the set power level. This sequence prevents a high inrush current at start-up and ensures that minimal stresses are put on the lamp pinches and foils.


Poole Projects invests for the future


oole Projects Ltd is keen to help in the development of young engineers and give them an insight into the paper industry, hopefully encouraging them to pursue a career in engineering and ideally within the paper industry sector. To this end the company has recently taken on Ben Hargreaves, a mechanical engineering undergraduate from Coventry University, for a nine month internship. The primary objective of the internship is to give Ben the opportunity to use the knowledge


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and skills he has gained in his first two years at university, and to develop them in a professional environment alongside experienced engineers. It will also present Ben with real-life projects, with challenges and opportunities for learning and hopefully on-the-job satisfaction that university cannot fully provide. Poole Projects Managing Director,


John Williams said, “We are committed to helping the development of young engineers and we are particularly grateful for the training grants made available by PICON which make it a lot easier for companies such as ourselves to


Cont@ct the BPMSA T: +44 (0)1438 832742


Compact’s new UPF thyristor controller is used with its own brand of dryers and is available for Impact dryers too


As well as using the new UPF thyristor controllers in its own equipment, Compact has made them available for Impact dryers too. Compact’s UPF thyristor controllers can be mounted on a DIN rail or in an Impact chassis to suit the existing power control cabinet design. The benefits of energy efficiency are well known and becoming increasingly important and affordable incremental changes to the efficiency of electrically powered dryers should be embraced.


Compact Engineering Ltd Tim Klemz


+44(0)1845 525356 +44(0)1845 525357 tim.klemz@compact.co.uk www.compact.co.uk


give people like Ben these opportunities. The bulk of the training we


provide will be in- house, but we do have external support from organisations such as PITA who


provide excellent industry-specific training courses. We also believe that offering placements to young engineers, such as Ben, is definitely not one sided and we are equally keen to learn from them during their time with us.”


F: +44 (0)1438 833812 E: info@bpmsa.co.uk


Poole Projects Ltd John Williams


+44(0)161 724 7692 +44(0)161 724 6544 jwilliams@pooleprojects.co.uk www.pooleprojects.co.uk


W: www.picon.com/bpmsa


Ben Hargreaves has joined Poole Projects on a nine month internship


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