Mechanical Technology January 2016

Mechanical Technology — January 2016

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Hydraulic and pneumatic systems

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hrough its largest contract to

date in terms of the number

of compressors supplied and

serviced – and the years under

service – Ingersoll Rand is playing a

pivotal role in ensuring that Eskom’s Ma-

juba plant in Mpumalanga has sufficient

compressed air for continuous operation.

Majuba is the power utility’s second

largest plant with an installed capacity

of 4 110 MW. The plant is supported by

21 Ingersoll Rand Centac

centrifugal

compressors installed onsite.

These compressors, which vary from

16 m³/min capacity to 125 m³/min, are

used to service Majuba’s compressed

air requirements, primarily process and

dust conveying air. To ensure optimum

running of the centrifugal compressors,

Ingersoll Rand has employed a dedicated

Eskom service sales engineer (SSE). Now

a dedicated team of six Ingersol Rand staff

members – a senior technician, who also

performs the role of onsite supervisor;

an instrumentation technician; a dryer

technician; and three assistants – are

seconded to the utility’s site on a full

time basis. The team is responsible for

all maintenance, service and repairs and

performs all operations pertaining thereto.

In addition to the Ingersoll Rand

Majuba compressors and service agreements

Ingersol Rand’s CV0, 16 m³/min compressor (the

smallest), used extensively at the Majuba power station.

The C 125MX3, 125 m³/min centrifugal compressors (the largest) are regularly maintained and serviced, along with 19 other Ingersoll Rand

Centac

centrifugal compressors and 84 non-Ingersoll Rand products. Ingersoll Rand’s six-man team is onsite 24/7.

Ingersoll Rand compressors have now been used at Eskom’s Majuba

power plant for over seven years. The company’s dedicated Eskom

service sales engineer and key accounts manager, Neo Kuhn, talks

about the service agreements and contractual obligations that have

made this possible.

Centac compressors, the company inher-

ited an additional 84 non-Ingersoll Rand

products onsite, including 63 dryers, and

also takes responsibility for the continu-

ous optimum operation of these products.

To facilitate smooth running of the

service agreement, the contractual ob-

ligations are split into two measurable

service agreements – a maintenance

contract and a spare parts contract,

which run in conjunction with one an-

other for five-year periods. The current

service agreement is the second five-

year contract and it is currently into its

second year.

The original product commissioning

took place as far back as September

1995, while the two service agree-

ments came into place only seven years

ago when Eskom realised the need for

dedicated onsite professionals to ensure

uptime continuity. “Although the average

compressor lifetime is approximately five

years,” says Neo Kuhn, service sales

engineer and key accounts manager,

Ingersoll Rand, “with correct upkeep and

proper service intervals, it is possible to

increase compressor longevity.”

Ingersoll Rand removes and overhauls

each compressor every three years for

smaller compressors and every five years

for the larger. “Although, due to the way

we maintain our compressors, we have

a number of smaller units that achieve

five years or more before an overhaul, and

larger units that have now reached the

seven-year milestone,” Kuhn points out.

He believes that these particular

Centac compressors provide Eskom with

several advantages that others don’t,

such as the ability to provide constant

flow, quick demand compression and

the high energy efficiency for the required

volumes of compressed air produced.

“Ingersoll Rand South Africa is cer-

tainly putting its money where its mouth

is and living up to one of the statements

made by its American parent company:

‘We stand behind our air compressors

and beside our customers during plan-

ning, installation and maintenance’,”

Kuhn concludes.