Industry: Dairy
Application: Milking Parlour
Site Challenge:
Milkflo Dairy Systems, an OEM manufacturer, supplies and services milking and feeding systems for dairy farms throughout Cornwall, Devon, and the Southwest. Managing Director George Berriman wanted to offer dairy farmers in the area an option to add VSDs to their milking parlour machinery to cut their energy use. “Conventional systems have a motor driving a vacuum pump flat out, using an air pressure regulator to blow off excess vacuum pressure,” says Berriman. He asked local ABB authorised value provider, APDS, to investigate and provide an innovative solution.
APDS Solution:
APDS supplied and fitted a test ABB ACS580 drive on a typical milking parlour installation at its workshop in Redruth. APDS used a vacuum transducer to signal the ABB drive when the air pressure had changed through a number of valves, simulating a cow finishing its milking.
With 30 cows being milked, the motors would be run at 80 percent speed. As cows finish milking the speed of the motor is ramped down accordingly, so with 15 cows it would be running at 50 percent speed.
Using its built-in PID function the VSD ramps down the motor to maintain the correct vacuum pressure. Alan Jones of APDS says: “In a real milking parlour, this would mean that with say, 30 cows being milked, the motors would be run at 80 percent speed. As cows finish milking the speed of the motor is ramped down accordingly so with 15 cows, it would be running at maybe 50 percent speed, to maintain a stable vacuum within the system.
Benefits:
- Saves up to 60% on famers’ energy costs
- Animal comfort
- Easy installation upgrade
- Can be used with single-phase supply
- Grants available for costs
- Causes less wear and tear on the milking parlour pumps
Outcome:
George Berriman says, “The ABB drive worked right out of the box. We simply fine-tuned the PID functions, and it worked as expected.We have already supplied and retrofitted around 30 drives to farmers’ milking parlours,”
Berriman continues, “These range from 3 kW to 30 kW. One drive can operate two motors, making it more cost-effective for farmers. For example, if their facility has two 7 kW pumps, one 15 kW drive can operate them both. With this system, farmers can save up to 60 percent on their energy costs. This can lead to a significant monetary saving as some systems work from 12 to 15 hours a day.”
Although the VSD-based pressure control is fully automatic, farmers can alter the pressure manually to maintain the health and comfort of the cows. Installation of the VSDs on the milking parlours causes no disruption for the farmer as the work can be done between milking sessions. As many farms have a single-phase supply, the VSDs can be converted to operate on single phase. A further benefit is that the use of the VSD causes less wear and tear on the milking parlour pumps.
Footnote:
Please note these customer-approved stories are collected since 2000. While some company names may have changed during this time, the principles and methods described to save energy or improve productivity are applicable today. contact APDS Ltd Bristol: 01179 822 049 www.apds.co.uk
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