Replacing obsolete flame management units
November 2003
News
When Columbus Stainless decided earlier this year, that the time had come to replace all the flame failure equipment on its AP2 strip annealing line at their Middleburg plant, it turned to Krom Schröder of Osnabrück. The sole agent for Krom Schröder in South Africa is The Combustion Group of Sebenza.
Having many years experience with Krom Schröder equipment, they were able to assist Columbus in the tricky logistics of replacing all of the 36 flame management units in one shutdown. The existing units were obsolete, so their specifications were sent to Germany so that the Krom Schröder engineers could assess the suitability of a unit from their own range to act as a direct replacement. A sample of the old and the new were obtained and a test rig was built by The Combustion Group to prove to the client that the choice was correct. This was vital to avoid the necessity of major rewiring of the existing system, which would have required a major shutdown to complete.
Four 19" racks complete with 36 PFD 778D flame management units together with four PFA700 power supplies were supplied by Krom Schröder to The Combustion Group, who mounted them in a new door for the existing enclosures on site. Drawings were prepared giving every detail of the old wiring system and the new racks and repeatedly crosschecked to ensure that, when the changeover time came, every possible problem area had been addressed beforehand.
The result of the testing and planning was that the completely new system was installed in 18 hours by The Combustion Group's engineers and the re-ignition of the burners was achieved without a hitch. Columbus now has a flame management system in this part of its plant which complies fully with the safety requirements of SANS 74-2 2003 and can rely on The Combustion Group to provide spares and service backup.
For more information contact The Combustion Group, 011 452 5060.
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