Save up to 30% electricity with the Powerboss Integra.

Sawmills, production lines, everywhere there are constant-speed electric motors which are running permanently or cyclically well under full load.
Until now, most bigger motors have been started  with star-delta starters. While they reduce the start-up peaks somewhat, they still produce  spikes which can be troublesome, and restrict severely the re-start frequency, so that many motors idle for most of the time. The Powerboss soft-start feature allows for starts to be programmed over up to more than 4 minutes. In belt-driven systems, the saving in belt cost alone has frequently repaid the investment inside a year. Similarly, a soft stop is available if required, of reverse current braking.
The original function for which the Powerboss was designed, is to optimise power consumption in motors which are running under their design load, or cyclically.  While running off-load, as for example in metal-working machines while the work-piece is being changed, considerable savings are available. Even more saving is to be had with fly-wheel machines, as in the idle phases the power can be switched off completely. Several other feaures are available, and can be activiated by programme if and as required.

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Predict wear, ensure quality, avoid stoppages

Every maintenance manager is charged with the task of ensuring a problem-free production – and this of course at as low a cost as possible.
The Ultrasonic SPY is a new diagnostic tool using ultrasound. With it, almost as  if in passing, and in spite of the normal loud background noise, defects can be detected with little or no training. Mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and air/gas systems can be monitored. Wear can be detected at its earliest stage, often in time to take remedial action and so avoid unplanned down-time, or even component replacement. The fact that NASA has two SPYs monitoring the systems in the ISS speaks for itself.

With the standard basic kit, the SPY can detect air or gas leaks at up to 30 metres (with normal factory noise background).  An accessory extends this to up to 100 metres, very applicable in chemical and petrolium plants, and in power stations. An explosion-safe version is also available.

Increase efficiency.

Time is money !  For you too ?  SPY users regularly report that they are saving 80->90% of the previous search and diagnosis time.

A further option for the SPY is “Sound CTRL“, a software system which records the ultrasound from bearings and gears and permits these to be archived, evaluated and compared.  Much simpler than vibration analysis, and much cheaper to implement, it has been found by firms which had tried to implement vibration ana lyis not only to be much easier to use and giving the same quality of condition monitoring, but also to be suitable for use in situations where vibration analysis gave no useful information. At a conference in November 2006, the maintenance manager of a major German company reported that they had been working to implement vibration analysis for 10 years already, “but we have not yet achieved what we had hoped for at the start“.  An investment of several million Euros – wasted.   More information:  www.ultrasonicspy.com

Broad-band lubricants for less wear and wasted energy

Few realise the degree to which different greases and oils can impact energy use and wear. But grease is not grease, oil is not oil. This was brought home to Richard Chambers almost as a baby. A great-uncle had developed the formula for a new gear oil, which dominated the world market in the first half of the last century under the product name “Castrol“.

The lubricant programme of Chambers GmbH includes lubricants certified to reduce wear by up to 88% (with obvious consequent reductions in energy requirement too). Even tested with modern 0W30 oil in a German university laboratory, a reduction of 3-8% was achieved compared with the oil alone, which agrees. with the results achieved in practice by truck fleet operators, averaging 6%.

These lubricants, which produce a low-friction coating on all friction surfaces, were studied 1984-1989 by the Cranfield Institute in England. They concluded that the use of PTFE-treating oil was beneficial in every mechanical and hydraulic area. The PTFE used in Chambers' products is high-density PTFE, not to be confused with the low-density versions (such as Teflon) well known for coating frying-pans. Researchers at Cambridge University established that high-density PTFE offered  39% less frictional resistance than the low-density version.

With complex gear trains the saving can be even greater, as in the case of a reduction gear system, 149,5 :1.  Here the torque at the output end was increased by 14%. In a piston compressor driven by a 5.3MW electric motor (in an oil refinery), the power requirement was reduced by >5%.

With the paraffine-crude-based lubricants, re-greasing and oil-change intervals can be significantly increased, while here too the energy consumption is reduced. Costed over one or two years and not just looking at the purchase price per kilo or litre, the higher price for these products becomes of no significance. Total lubrication costs (normally at least 80% labour, less than 20% materials) can be reduced by two-thirds, with further benefits through lower energy requirement and wear reduction. Further, with increasing environmental concern, less-frequent oil changes reduce the costs of disposal of the old oil.

Rejuvinating old oil seals.

Who  does not know the horrible drops of oil on the garage floor or on the car park ? And this happens often when old-timers are around. LecWec - for all oil types and all oil systems, rejuvinates dried-out oil seals and makes them flexible again. Thus many expensive and time-consuming repairs can be avoided (even assuming that the seal is still available).

Before the development of shaft seals from polymere rubber, many were made from felt. Here, LecWec cannot help, but Chambers offers, if not always a complete solution, a product which will significantly reduce such oil losses.  "dB Wec", brough into the Chambers' programme primarily to reduce noise in differentials and gearboxes, changes the oil's behaviour such that it is less prone to work its way past such felt seals. 

For more information visit this website: www.lecwec.com

New:  Seidenfaust (the silken fist) The KO for stone damage to car paint.

Old-timers are typically exposed to many inquisitive hands at shows and in museums. And often on old-timer rallys a stone has damaged the paint. this always reduces the value of the car and requires time-consuming re-working, and is a stab in the heart of any old-timer lover. From America, Chambers has brought the solution. Until recently, they fitted an ugly black padded mask over the front of teh car, known as a "car-bra".  In Europe, the answer has been a thick, clear foil, painstakingly fitted to all the curves of the bodywork. Nether an acceptable solution for owners of historic cars.

The same protection without foil, but invisible !

The answer, "Seidenfaust", is a special cushioning clear paint, professionally sprayed on over the vehicle's normal paint and not visible. As well as being subjected to all the tests normal for paints, such as the simulated 10 years in the Florida sun, the fact that this really works was demonstrated by a test which was described as either "extreme" or plain "barbaric" .  To achieve an impact speed  of 160 kmh, stones up to twice the size of a 2-Euro coin were poured down onto a treated body pannel  from the top of a large appartment block. The difference between the coated and the uncoated halves of the pannel after this had been repeated several times left no doubt as to the protection which Seidenfaust offers.

For more information visit this website: www.seidenfaust.com