There are multiple critical applications in the cleanrooms of the pharmaceutical industry where a small failure due to any reason can result in high downtime costs, and if the failure occurs frequently, it leads to the scrapping of ongoing work at the time of the failure. Therefore, the drives installed in the cleanroom applications like powering HVAC fans & chillers should be effectively immune to the fluctuations in the mains power or any type of complete supply failure.
Reliability and energy efficiency are the key Focus
It's noteworthy that reliability is an essential requirement of the equipment functioning within the cleanrooms, predominantly the HVAC systems that supply clean air. Employing the variable speed functionality is the most cost-effective method to regulate the fan & pump operation in the pharmaceutical industry. It has been observed that the traditional throttles or vane controls might be affordable in the starting, but these systems lead to wastage of huge amounts of energy during the operation phase.
Energy efficiency is also vital when the complete lifecycle cost of the pharmaceutical set-ups is considered. Since the acquisition, installation, and disposal costs are inescapably inferior to the overall lifetime energy costs.
Air quality improvement necessities of the pharmaceutical industry
Air quality is crucial to eliminate the contamination of the drugs manufactured, to stimulate the temperature sensitive drug manufacturing process and to increase the shelf-life of the drug without disrupting the health & safety of the employees. When Danfoss AC drives are used to control the fan speed of the dust collector, it functions efficiently to uphold the airflow & static pressure while enhancing the energy savings. Using Danfoss AC drives, a reduction in the fan speed by just 20%, can lead to about 50% savings on the energy costs.
The processing systems and the cleanroom applications have unique HVAC/R requirements; therefore, Danfoss AC drives control the chilled and hot water valves of the systems by maintaining precise temperature parameters.
Functions of Danfoss drives that optimize the performance of cleanrooms applications
With its user-friendly interface, shared intelligence, and low power consumption, the Danfoss AC drives can optimize the performance of cleanroom applications in the following ways:
a) Danfoss industrial automation drives extend the capacity of the building management system: When the Danfoss AC drives are integrated with the building management system network, for extending the capacity of the controllers, all HVAC drive input/output points are transformed into remote input/output points. For example, room temperature sensors like Ni1000 or Pt1000 can be directly integrated with the system for enhanced control.
b) Enhanced air-handling performance: The Danfoss VLT HVAC drive and the VLT refrigeration drives are equipped with built-in smart logic controllers and 4 auto-tune PID controllers to regulate the air-handling functions with valves, dampers, and fans. The explicit digital controls of the building management system are released and the data points are saved. This lowers the cost of the air-handling unit. Danfoss VLT HVAC drive manages the logical rules and input signals from sensors, looking after the real-time functionality and actions.
Protection of the employees and operators: The Danfoss VLT HVAC drive (FC 102) has Safe Torque Off (STO) functions that comply with the regulations of ISO 13849-1 (PL d and SIL 2) and the rules of IEC 61508, IEC 62061. Therefore for the high demanding applications, the functionality can be expanded using the VLT Safe Option MCB 140, which is an external module with functionalities like Safely Limited Speed (SLS), Safe Stop 1 (SS1), and Safe Maximum Speed (SMS). Additional functions like external contactor control and safety door unlocking & monitoring are also provided.
Designed for maximum uptime at the lowest cost: Danfoss industrial automation drives are designed for advanced applications, which reduces maintenance costs, increases lifetime, and decreases downtime throughout the system life cycle.
The Danfoss VLT drives have created new benchmarks by providing a higher efficiency at full load. This exceptional efficiency reduces the CAPEX costs & operating costs as the need to reduce the heat load is smaller for the equipment, which eventually maximizes the energy efficiency.
Unmatched performance at high ambient temperatures: Danfoss VLT drives are designed to provide the best performance at ambient temperatures of up to 50° C; using the autoderate capability, these drives can easily operate at higher temperatures and can also maintain reduced operation levels in extreme climatic conditions.
Mostly, the VLT drives can handle the functions without any human intervention. These drives also manage the losses due to the mains phase or high mains imbalance due to autoderating loads, which helps maintain a period of reduced operation and enables the technicians to comply with the situation.
Conclusion
Danfoss has been the market leader of the inverter drives industry for more than 40 years. Danfoss industrial automation drives meet the ever-increasing demands on smart solutions and energy efficiency for cleanroom applications. By choosing the Danfoss VLT drives, you can benefit from up to 98% basic energy efficiency, automatic energy optimization, user-friendly operation interface with programming in almost 27 languages.
Danfoss's wide-ranging experience in applying drives for the HVAC set-ups of industrial systems is supported by its ability to provide the best-in-class technical expertise for extracting the maximum potential from your initial investments and optimizing the operational costs.