Smart manufacturers that use any kind of metal casting or plastic molding systems, including everything from cars to mining equipment to refrigerators, all know one thing: Cooling processes are vital to increasing throughput, lowering energy costs and maximizing overall efficiency. And that means more money.
Molding and casting machines are expensive, as are the dies, so throughput and utilization must be maximized. That means chilling the filled die as fast as possible, which takes sophisticated cooling systems. ChemTec custom builds flow monitors for those systems, including the LFS Series.
Cooling Options
Most cooling is achieved by running cold water through the hot production tooling. Heat is transferred into the water and the metal or plastic solidifies. Three superior alternatives are:
- Cooling tower: Using the principle of cooling by evaporation, pipes carrying water from the process run into a tower. Cold water sprays over these pipes and a proportion evaporates, taking the heat with it. Cooling tower systems are often found in large-scale operations as well as power generation. As water is lost running costs are quite high. Additionally, scale can build up in pipes, reducing heat-transfer efficiency.
- Water chiller: Effectively a mini-refrigerator, these run the process water through chilled coils. They are effective in small-scale cooling situations but have high running costs.
- Adiabatic cooling: Like the cooling tower, this method uses cooling by evaporation, but in a closed-loop system. Hot water from the process heats air that is in turn drawn through water-moistened pads. This moisture evaporates, lowering the temperature of the air. The water is subsequently recovered and reused. As a result, water consumption and electricity usage are both very low.
Employing ChemTec’s LFS Series
Cooling systems always run the risk of partially or completely blocked pipes, which reduces water flow. Reductions like this threaten the efficiency of the entire system. Flow monitors like the LFS series sense abnormal flow conditions with a magnetic piston suspended in the fluid stream. If the flow moves outside of set limits the magnetic field changes by a small but detectable amount. When this happens an alarm can be set or other actions taken as appropriate, such as shutting down fan motors.
Whatever cooling process you use, ChemTec will work with you to create a customized solution. Contact us today if you’re interested in discovering how ChemTec’s flow monitors can keep you cooler.
