ITT Cannon GmbH in Weinstadt/Baden-Württemberg is a leading manufacturer of connectors for electrical engineering and data transmission technology. The German subsidiary of American ITT Corporation primarily manufactures for the transport sector and has relied on HYFRA for over three decades. In 1987 and 1988, ITT Cannon installed two HYFRA process coolers with cooling capacities of 8 and 14 kW respectively in its production facility. They remained in operation unchanged for years. Together with an additional cooler (approx. 6 kW), they recently became responsible for recooling three induction plants. But when it came to energy efficiency and control technology, the systems could not live up to today’s standards. While modernizing its production facility from the ground up, the company decided to renew its existing process cooling system as well. At the same time, the base dimensions of the cooling system needed to be significantly reduced to facilitate production area expansion.
<strong>Deciding in favor of HYFRA again</strong>
Due to its positive experience with the exceptional durability and quality of HYFRA process coolers in the past, ITT Cannon decided again to use the products of the manufacturer from Krunkel in Germany’s Westerwald region. The choice fell on the efficiency optimized HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 chiller, which features up to 30 percent lower power consumption than conventional process coolers and maximum operational reliability thanks to its programmable logic controller (PLC). Equipped with a powerful plate heat exchanger and market-leading Microchannel technology, HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 requires around 70 percent less refrigerant than most commercial chillers. Integrated FleXX Technology enables consistent needs-based operation without overcapacity. The PLC precisely records the application’s thermal load and aligns the EC compressor, EC fan and electronic expansion valve with equal precision, producing process cooling that always runs at optimal efficiency. The compressor’s infinitely adjustable speed control prevents material wear, extending the system’s service life. And it significantly lowers the chiller’s noise level. With temperature precision of up to +/- 0.1 K, HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 also meets the requirements of modern process cooling when it comes to control precision.
By installing HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 in its production facility, ITT Cannon considerably improved several process levels at the same time. While each of the three induction plants used to be dedicated to its own process cooler, now one system is responsible for dissipating all the process heat. Scaling down to only one chiller reduces energy and maintenance costs significantly. And PLC-based needs adjustment of all main components delivers additional savings. The old systems could only be switched on or off, but now the system’s cooling capacity can be precisely adapted to the number of induction plants currently in operation or the amount of process heat being generated. The amount of refrigerant required is exceptionally low and the compressor operates in a way that conserves material, which also makes a significant contribution to lowering the total cost of operation.
<strong>Economical and space-saving – plus higher cooling capacity</strong>
HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 not only provides ITT Cannon with economic benefits: the system enabled the company to realize its planned production area expansion without any problems. The three previous chillers were located in their own room inside the production hall, primarily to optimize sound insulation. The new, noticeably quieter process chiller is installed on a wall and dissipates the heated air upward, through a duct. The old chiller room could be torn down and the area used for production.
ITT Cannon did not have to sacrifice cooling capacity for any of these benefits. On the contrary, at a maximum of 34.5 kW, HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 alone delivers more cooling capacity than the approx. 28 kW of the three previous systems combined. Since the PLC offers comprehensive evaluation of all process data and automatically triggers an alarm when malfunctions occur, all processes can be controlled and downtime reduced to a minimum. And the PLC enables HYFRA Sigma FleXX 8-34 chillers to be integrated into interconnected environments, supporting comprehensive process management.
<strong>About ITT Cannon</strong>
ITT Cannon GmbH is a subsidiary of ITT Corporation, a conglomerate headquartered in White Plains, New York. Cannon, Goulds Pumps and Torque Systems are other well-known ITT Corporation brands. The corporation has 9,400 employees worldwide and markets its products in 125 countries. ITT Cannon GmbH, the German subsidiary, is specialized in the concept development and manufacture of high quality connectors for electrical engineering and data transmission technology. It primarily supplies customers from the transport and electrical industries, but also serves other sectors.
