ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • 59 www.rittal.ie For further information on the entire Rittal range visit www.rittal.ie or check out our linkedin page @rittal-ireland Rittal Potential signs your cooling equipment is struggling: • Is your electrical equipment (PLCs and drives) starting to trip or fail? • Do electrical equipment trips or failures cause production to slow or stop? • Are your enclosures hot to touch? • Are your enclosure doors regularly left open? • Do you have fans standing by those open doors in the summer months? • Does inadequate chilling of process uids result in production down-time? • Have you upgraded your PLCs and drives and not reviewed your existing cooling equipment? It’s also worth checking the date of the last scheduled service and maintenance visit, and if this in line with manufacturer’s recommendations. If not - or you can’t remember the last time it was serviced - then we would advise scheduling a service before temperatures rise any further. Benefits of Maintaining Cooling Equipment As we’ve indicated, however tough the trading conditions, not servicing your vital electrical cooling units is almost always a false economy. Some of the most common bene ts regular servicing should confer: • Satisfying warranties: cooling equipment manufacturers typically require equipment to have been maintained according to their guidelines for the period they are under warranty. Plus, it’s almost always a requirement for extended cover • Financial savings: as we’ve indicated, electrical equipment is extremely sensitive to heat. Maintaining your cooling units will help ensure your PLCs and drives work within their optimum temperature range, which will improve their ef ciency and extend their lifespan. • Finding replacement parts: it may not be easy to quickly get hold of replacement parts, especially for older electrical equipment. • Customer service expectation & order ful lment: thanks in part to the ef ciency of ecommerce deliveries, we’re seeing a higher number of customers demanding shorter order turnaround. Recurrent operational hold-ups caused by production line failures can quickly escalate into cancelled contracts and impact on repeat business. • Avoiding the sheer hassle of sorting out failing equipment (i.e. the timeis-money argument): hours spent by managers and operators to sort out equipment failures will be a frustrating headache in an already busy working day. • Avoiding ‘emergency’ call-out expenses: it’s rare that you won’t have to pay more for emergency or out-of-hours service calls where no service contract exists. • Falling foul of short-term xes: some well-intentioned attempts to alleviate overheating, such as opening the door of the enclosure, can cause more problems by allowing contaminants such as moisture, dust and dirt to into your drives. These can cause as many issues as excess heat. Not only that, but open panel doors can present a very real risk to health and safety. Maintaining Your Cooling Units: Next Steps We recommend that you arrange for a health check of your cooling before temperatures start rising so that any necessary remedial measures can be taken before problems arise. During one of our free RiAssure Service & Ef ciency Checks, a member of our experienced Rittal team will inspect up to 10 cooling units. They will offer practical advice on ways in which the units’ effectiveness and energy ef ciency may be improved. For large installations, or where a more technical inspection is necessary, we can arrange for a more comprehensive RiAssure Advanced Service & Ef ciency Check, conducted by one of our trained service engineers. They will perform a series of detailed checks on your climate control units and enclosures, gathering the necessary data to resolve more complex issues. We will provide you with written feedback, including advice around adding value to your business and future best practise guidance.
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