Fans
Industrial fans take a significant share of total electricity consumption in the industry for their account. In addition, installations with fans are often subject to a high degree of vibration in the system. Maintenance or repair must be carried out regularly. Theses recurring cost are due to the nature of a fan installation. In ATEX environment, the cost of maintenance of fan installations increase rapidly and are often double to triple. Typically for fans are the high current peaks during the start of the installation. The non-contact magnetic coupling also provides a mechanical soft start preventing these current peaks. Often fans are indispensable in the production and cost of downtime can therefore be excessive.
In fan applications applying the magnetic coupling has many advantages. Significant energy savings could be achieved. In case of a mechanical error the damage to other equipment is prevented which reduces high costs for maintenance and repairs and avoids downtime. Applying the magnetic coupling means "FIT AND FORGET".
Fan with a Zytec contact-free magnetic coupling in a cooling tower.
In these cooling towers, the fluid coupling (for heavy mass accellation) with flexible coupling (for misalignment during operation) of the fan (15 meter high) is replaced by a Zytec contact-free magnetic coupling. The Zytec coupling takes care for fan accellation and release motor and fan shaft of radial forces caused by inevitable operational misaligment. Motor power is 90kW. Previously every 2 years they had to repair the fluid coupling to replace bearing, seals and oil. The Zytec contact-free magnetic coupling has no consumable parts and is therefore completely maintenance-free for 20+ years. The Mean Time Between Repair has gone from 2 years to 20+ years. A tenfold increase in the MTBR. In the video it had just rained that day, therefore a pool of water is visible under the coupling. The coupling guard has temporaly removed for photo purposes. You can see the start process of the fan with a motor that halfway switched to a higher speed. They use this to be able to cool at 2 levels.
The Zytec magnetic coupling has no physical contact between the motor and fan shaft. This is connected through an air gap. There are no consumables such as bearings, seals and oil as in a fluid coupling with flexible coupling and is therefore maintenance free. Because the coupling transmits power without contact, no radial forces are generated on the motor shaft and fan shaft. This extends the service life of motor bearings to design life. Misalignment during operation is responsible for more than 50% of damage to rotating equipment. Alignment is no longer relevant with a contact-free magnetic coupling. The service life of the bearing to the fan shown in the film is therefore also significantly extended. In this case the vibrations due to the Zytec coupling were reduced by more than 60%. This means that the MTBR (Mean Time Between Repair) of the entire installation is therefore extended even further. There are even more advantages: no oil leakage, lower starting currents, shorter voltage dip, etc.
Impression of fansize.
The occasions the mobile crane is needed for repair is significantly reduced.