Gary Franklin is chairman of the specialist industrial water chiller and cooling systems Coolmation Group, which incorporates its chillers and cooling systems hire division, Chillers4Hire. He has over 30 years of experience in the cooling industry. This began in 1969 with his involvement in the development of a range of industrial water chillers. In 1983 he set up his own company, Coolmation Ltd, to specialise in the growing demand for industrial process and space cooling and in the intervening period has created a group of companies employing almost 100 staff, with turnover approaching £10m.
The Coolmation Group operates throughout the UK in the Hire, Sales, Installation and Service of Water chillers and cooling systems for both industrial and HVAC applications.
Owing to the delicate temperature sensitive nature of certain medical products chillerand air conditioning hire is increasingly called upon by pharmaceutical manufacturers. Whether topping up existing cooling capacity or providing emergency cover, selecting the right chiller supplier is a hugely important process. The company which provides a comprehensive chiller and temporary air conditioning hire fleet which can be delivered nationwide is obviously well-placed to fulfil a customer’s requirement. Increasingly, however, successful chiller hire relationships are built on more substantial foundations than these. Yes, the first step may be choosing a company with ready availability of the right equipment, but applications and installation know-how and technical support are more in demand than ever as plant engineers seek to minimise downtime, keep costs as low as possible and maximise plant productivity.
With global warming causing temperatures to rise across the UK, existing chiller and air conditioning plant can struggle to cope during the summer months when it is already working to full capacity. However, installing additional capacity is not always the right answer, since increasing this can result in oversized plant that exceeds demand for the remainder of the year. Not an energy efficient solution. These days advanced energy efficient cooling systems can be hired and quickly installed to minimise the potentially harmful effects of high summer ambient conditions, topping up cooling capacity when and where required to help maintain process and product quality, machinery productivity and profitability at optimum levels.
However, seasonal temperature rises are not the only drivers for hiring. Hiring chillers and cooling systems can also provide a cost-effective temporary solution where existing ones have broken down, are off-line because of essential maintenance or where cooling is required to meet short-term storage or batch production demands.
Hiring can also provide the temporary measures to maintain temperature requirements where highly sensitive equipment, products or storage spaces need to be kept cool while installed temperature control systems are being refurbished. Major pharmaceutical manufacturers are now benefiting from the security which chiller and air conditioning hire offers. A recent chiller replacement project for GlaxoSmithKline in Weybridge demanded such assurance due to temperature sensitive products. Here the contractor ISS Building Services had to ensure that chilled water was not lost for more than 24 hours. Andy Hull, senior contracts manager, ISS Building Services explains: “The brief was to provide a new chiller and maintain conditions at all times.” In order to achieve this Coolmation’s Chillers4Hire division supplied a temporary 250kW chilller to ISS Building Services while the permanent chiller was replaced. The chiller and temporary hoses were on site for two weeks allowing cooling to be maintained while an old unit was removed and a new one installed. “The whole project ran extremely smoothly resulting in a downtime of just three hours during the change over between chillers,” adds Mr Hull. The chiller hire therefore allowed both the brief to be met and GlaxoSmithKline to continue to produce its high quality products without disruption.
Genzyme, a diagnostic intermediates manufacturer, has similarly benefited from chiller hire during plant replacement. In a recent project a 250kW temporary chiller was required to maintain cooling in a building in Maidstone Kent, while a permanent chiller was replaced. Coolmation’s Chillers4Hire division supplied the hire chiller to cool the 2,500m2 building while the main chiller was shut down and the new one installed. The new chillers were supplied and commissioned by Coolmation’s Sales and Service Divisions.
John Collins, engineering manager, Genzyme says: “Most of the diagnostic intermediates that we manufacture are enzymes and are temperature sensitive such as cholesterol oxidase, an enzyme used for blood cholesterol measurements. Typically these products need to be chilled under 10 deg C which is a concern when undergoing chiller replacement. However, the chiller installation was completely trouble free, and kept the facilities needed running.”
In fact, whilst hiring a water chiller or air conditioning system is now relatively common place for dealing with short-term needs, it can also be a cost effective solution to a long-term requirement, as opposed to purchasing new equipment. This is key when capital may not be available for an outright purchase, but the pharmaceutical manufacturer recognises that not having the equipment on site would be detrimental to productivity, quality, or both. For long-term hire it can be possible to obtain special rates from hire companies depending on the anticipated hire period. All service and maintenance costs are often included in the hire charges, in effect, fixing the outgoings for the duration of the hire. Alternatively, chiller hire can be used as part of the procurement process by enabling on-site plant engineers to conduct proving trials before committing to a purchase. The result, confirmation of the need and peace of mind.
However, once the plant engineer has decided to hire a chiller the next challenge is to ensure that the most energy efficient and appropriate one for the job is selected, and that comprehensive 24/7service and maintenance is part of the hire agreement. There is no point hiring a chiller to save on capital costs if the unit is inefficient and eats up the savings through high running costs. For this reason, it is important to go to a chiller company with a hire division rather than a plant hire company with a chiller arm. The former will understand the customer’s cooling requirements for product storage, machine or process cooling during the cooling cycle, and the impact lower coolant temperatures, higher coolant flow rates and pressures, or a combination of all might have on the application. The experienced chiller supplier will be able to provide sound advice on the best solution for a particular project, purely and simply because they will have many years’ of applications knowledge and plant and space cooling experience. Significantly more than your average plant hire company.
They will also be well placed to advise you on ancillary equipment, when and where it is required to support the installation, such as, pumps, tanks and heat exchangers. For example, plant engineers should look for a chiller hire company that provides a range of modern, reliable and energy efficient chillers with integral pumps and tanks to meet a wide range of duties, all underpinned by years of experience in the business of supplying process cooling and air conditioning systems to industry.
Ease of installation is another important factor. This is particularly so following the failure of an installed chiller or air conditioning failures when a temporary cooling system needs to be up and running as soon as possible to maintain production or product quality. Flexible hoses with quick connect couplers, stand alone pre wired pump sets and buffer or weir tanks can aid rapid installations. For example, our fluid chillers can run as single units, or as inter connected modules to provide high cooling capacities making them quick and easy to install.
Fast installation and commissioning and ongoing reliability can only be achieved by an experienced and knowledgeable lift and shift team which will include a qualified chiller and air conditioning engineer. They should be part of a company that ticks all the right quality assurance boxes for customers - ISO 9000:2000 certification, Refcom refrigerant handling and management and Safe Contractor accreditations. This needs to be supported with ongoing service and maintenance 24/7 for the duration of hire. This level of support is absolutely critical to ensure that hiring a chiller or cooling system works effectively for you and your pharmaceutical manufacturing process, giving you real peace of mind instead of more problems that could eventually end up costing more downtime and money.
A specialist chiller and air conditioning hire company should be able to provide customers with efficient cooling systems for virtually any temporary need with 24/7 technical and on site service support. There are a range of packages available to suit temporary needs for industrial processes, comfort cooling and cooling within rooms containing heat sensitive products and equipment such as servers and computers, packages and solutions which can be delivered and installed fast to limit business disruption.
Providing a variety of equipment to meet a wide range of applications is key when choosing a chiller hire company. It is important to verify that the company offers not just a full range of chillers to meet your needs, ideally with smaller units up to 300kW, with integral pump and tank systems to save on installation time, but also a range of air handling units which can be rapidly interconnected to the chillers when there is an urgent need to provide temporary cooling within a space where heat sensitive products or machinery are being stored or operated, or to maintain comfortable working conditions.
Chillers4Hire is a division of the Coolmation Group, the exclusive distributor for low energy Rhoss chillers and air side equipment. All Coolmation equipment available to UK customers is designed for high reliability and manufactured to internationally recognised quality standards. With offices in Lancashire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Bristol and a Head Office in Ringwood, Hampshire, Coolmation operates nationwide in chiller sales and installation, service, hire and technical support. For further information call freephone 0800 731 5466 or visit www.chillers4hire.co.uk.
