Variable Speed Drive Refurbish and Test - Increased Efficiency with Reduce Costs

About the Company

A leading glass packaging suppliers in Asia Pacific and part of an international group, the company has a century of experience crafting pure, sustainable, brand-building glass packaging for many of the world’s best-known food and beverage brands.

Summary

As part of their inventory review, the company realized they had a significant investment in Variable Speed Drives (VSD) of which many were unserviceable and waiting repair on their stores shelves. As there were multiple drives from various manufacturers and all varied in size and rating, the company was looking for a cost effective solution to have each drive tested and if possible refurbished. As many of the drives lacked documentation or specifications, the company approached Rom-Control for their expert opinion on options and strategies to provide a financially viable solution.

Issue to be resolved

The company began a programme to replace their production Variable Speed Drives (VSD) with units from their engineering stores on a rotational basis to ensure reliability and minimise the spares needed. As many of the drives were subject to environmental factors such as dust, moisture, temperature, vibration and the simple effect of aging, many of the drives were found to be unserviceable but as there was a myriad of makes and sizes of which many were superseded or discontinued, I-O initiated a refurbishment program. To ensure a simple and more economical, plug and play type solution, I-O decided to approach a single supplier with the appropriate credentials and experience that could carry out the work on each and every drive even where technical documentation could not be provided.

Rom-Control, with over 10 years’ experience in VSD and PLC repair and refurbishment, were trusted to review and refurbish each drive back to manufactures’ specification. As Rom-Control comply with ISO 9001 quality standards, each drive was refurbished and put back in service with a 100% success rate. Once again Rom-Control proved to be the only reliable provider that could offer a bespoke solution that was fully guaranteed for 24 months. Compared to the upgrade and/or replacement costs with original parts, the ROM-Control solution was by far the more economical alternative with minimal turnaround time.

Action

With over 10 years of experience repairing variable speed drives (VSDs) and associated equipment from 1kw to larger than 10MW range without the need for original documentation specifications, Rom-Control cleaned, tested and documents each unit separately in accordance with ISO 9001. Parts that were required were sourced from around the world with many through Rom-Controls unique supplier chain. Once repaired, each unit had to be fully tested under various conditions before being returned to service. The programme was run similar to a plug and play solution where the drives could be removed and replaced in minimal time and configuration. Due to the type of equipment the VSDs were being used on, it was essential that the repairs be reliable and stable and as with all our repairs, Rom-Control provided a full one year unconditional warranty.

Result

In the field trials that were performed by I-O proved the reliability of each unit and found a success rate of 100%. Refurbishment of the entire variable speed drive increased the useful life of the equipment, reduced the likelihood of failures due and therefore minimized downtime which resulted in a huge increase in asset reliability. I-O today continues to deliver equipment to ROM-Control as they know the repairs and refurbishment are equal or exceed the original manufacturers’ specifications.

Adrian Ciorogaru Ph. 1300 766 287