Wholesaler DW’s industrial refrigeration expertise has helped deliver a project to replace 11 industrial valve stations as part of a major overhaul for a leading distribution company.
Working closely with customer GEA Heating & Refrigeration Technologies (HRT) and manufacturer Danfoss, DW supplied all components at the Manchester site, alongside technical support, order processing and delivery scheduling, demonstrating its ability to offer a full package of support services for industrial projects.
The project
The Warrington service office of GEA HRT has serviced and maintained the facility since inheriting the site from a third-party contractor in 2002. For over 90 years, the distribution company has been a strategic partner to some of the world’s leading brands and has consequently become a global leader in supply chain logistics. It operates across 18 countries, with 78 distribution points, including 8 multi-temp distribution centres in the UK.
A major system component failure on the older non-Danfoss valves in Manchester resulted in a substantial loss of product and it was decided to replace the existing ammonia valve stations on all the freezer, chill and loading bay coolers.
The installation brief was to provide a full change-out of all industrial valves on 11 valve stations for the LT/HT systems with no disruption to day-to-day operations. A further requirement was that all work had to be completed within an 8-week period and in line with strict Health & Safety protocols.
The GEA HRT team had to take all these requirements into consideration in the selection of industrial ammonia valves and associated products as the constant movement of product through the centre meant they had to be both energy-efficient and reliable.
The solution
The modular Danfoss ICF Flexline™ is designed to offer significant savings by replacing a string of valves with a single valve station in a complete plug-and-play solution.
It was chosen for the Manchester project based on performance, reliability, versatility and reduced installation times due to factory pre-configuration and just two weld connections required. Four basic configurations cover 90% of all applications.
The customer
Ben Kennedy, Head of Service at GEA HRT in Warrington, said: “The project represented multiple technical challenges but the partnership between DW, Danfoss and ourselves ensured that the right valves were selected to meet the performance criteria, and that deliveries of the Danfoss products came in on time.
“We chose the Danfoss industrial product range as we are well versed and confident in their quality and reliability, and believe they are the best option currently available.’’
Darren Ditchfield, National Sales Manager, Industrial Refrigeration, at DW, said: “Using us as a one-stop-shop streamlined the entire process for the customer, resulting in lower freight costs, simplified ordering and direct communications, because we work with our partners as part of their team.
“The valve stations were a great choice for a number of reasons and independent tests show that they provide a much lower pressure drop than comparable valves, increasing overall system efficiency.’’
