Out with the old, in with the new for energy and service savings

ETEX Building Performance Ltd, a construction materials company opened its Bristol plant in 1990, to manufacture drywall products and systems for partitions, ceilings, wall linings and external sheathing purposes. 

With well over 20 successful years of operation fulfilled, the compressor equipment, which included HPC ASD, BSB and CSB compressors, was ready to be replaced. Based on previous very positive experience, ETEX’s Industrial Director asked Maziak to tender for the business.  

Maziak identified the following key areas for consideration:

• Control issues
• Multiple compressors located in different areas of the site
• Size of plant pipework
• Fluctuating demand between 48-60m3/min
• Focus on energy saving
• Limited factory space

Bearing all of the above parameters in mind, Maziak’s proposal featured:

• An isolated plant room to house all compressors  
  This overcame the issue of limited factory space and reduced the pipework across the site. New Transair piping was installed across the width of the building to remove pressure drops in the system.
• 3 x HPC DSDX  305 Compressors
  High performance IE4 drive motors and innovative design and control features maximise air compressor energy efficiency, a critical factor for the site.
• One central SAM4.0 control system
  This ensured energy KPI’s could be monitored and recorded. The new system was specifically designed around the fluctuating demand on site, keeping 100% redundancy in mind for servicing purposes, i.e. all of the compressors now work to a single set of parameters controlled by the SAM4.0 which allows for the demand to be monitored along with the running costs. 

The configuration of the system met all of ETEX’s production needs, not least offering enormous energy and cost savings. 
Energy costs were cut by 25% - a considerable financial saving and Service costs were reduced by a massive 50%. 
With a 4 year payback, the benefits to the company are clear.