Ingersoll Rand participated at the conference Energy Efficiency Stories that took place last November17th in Milan, bringing to the audience an application story about the employment of its system Global Air Solution at TEKFOR Italy's plant.
Ingersoll Rand provided one customer’s solution to reduce energy and maintenance costs by 40 percent, equating to a saving of approximately 38,000 Euros in operational costs a year, and featured this accomplishment at the Energy Efficiency Stories conference in Milan today. The savings come through the assessment and modernizing of the compressed air system at the TEKFOR Italy manufacturing plant in Avigliana near Turin, Italy.
Energy managers and energy professionals gathered today at the Milan conference to learn more about this project from Davide Gagnor, plant engineering manager at the TEKFOR Italy Avigliana plant.
“We favour the approach when equipment providers and end-users come together with a shared focus on maximizing the total cost of ownership,” Gagnor said. “Ingersoll Rand learned our business and production requirements, assessed our exact needs and provided us with not just components but a solution that perfectly fits our manufacturing environment, reduces our operational costs and improves the reliability of our compressed air.”
TEKFOR Italy is part of the Amtek TEKFOR Group, a global partner for the automotive industry, and market leader in the definition, development and production of pioneering solutions for transmissions, engines, drivelines, special applications and safety fasteners.
“Ingersoll Rand’s holistic total system approach to compressed air goes hand-in-hand with the Industry 4.0 approach leveraging the advances in compressor technology, specialized know-how, analytics and control expertise to provide our customers with a smart manufacturing solution that meets their individual requirements,” said Luca Ferrari, energy service support manager at Ingersoll Rand.
“We use our expertise to turn liabilities of an inefficient system into a performance advantage and find new ways of creating value, productivity and efficiency gains for our customers.”
TEKFOR Italy was looking for ways to modernize its compressed air system in the Avigliana manufacturing site with the goal to achieve energy cost reduction, lower the total cost of ownership and improve service quality and reliability. The aging setting, based on overcapacity oil-free compressors, was not meeting their desired efficiency levels and, when approached, Ingersoll Rand Compression Technologies and Services was able to partner with TEKFOR to conduct a full analysis of the existing system and provide tailor-made recommendations and cost-effective options for the required improvements.
Ingersoll Rand began the project in the end of 2015 with learning and understanding TEKFOR’s plant’s individual needs for compressed air, following with a detailed assessment of not just the particular compressors or components but the entire existing system and its configuration.
Based on the assessment, Ingersoll Rand provided TEKFOR Italy with a tailored solution that in February 2016 allowed for the replacement of the unnecessary oil-free compressors with oil-flooded units and the creation of a completely new compressor room with new dryers, piping and control system. The newly installed ISO12100 certified oil-flooded compressors are fixed speed R160ie, R132n with variable speed drive and a refurbished IRN160K-CC to serve as back up.
To lower TEKFOR’s cost of ownership associated with the new system, Ingersoll Rand offered the customer an alternative, low capital expenditure solution based on the long-term rental of air-compressors. Along with the opportunity to note immediate capital savings and leverage the operating expense budgets, this customer centric approach has further contributed to the improved service quality and reliability of the new system.
