Background
The CHH Wood products NZ business group manufactures and markets a full range of wood based building products, including timber, plywood, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), particleboard, and a range of interior decorative products, supplied from nine major manufacturing operations spread throughout New Zealand.
CHH's plant in Marsden Point manufactures LVL and uses industrial microwave generators during the production process. Voltage fluctuations were causing the generators to trip which was halting the production line, causing production loss and requiring costly replacement of parts.
ABB's power protection solution
CHH had specific requirements for product reliability, increased yield, lower running costs, increased machine centre uptime. To achieve this, they realised they would require an investment in a protection system for the plant. Therefore, ABB's 1000 KVA Active Voltage Conditioner (AVC) was installed to help smooth the incoming power to the microwave units.
| With Northland's power, including the CHH plant, being supplied through Auckland, the distance involved made the power feed potentially vulnerable to external elements, such as tree branches, animals and other industrial sites powered by the same line. ABB's trusted global experience and proven applications in power protection helped mitigate such external elements by providing continuous online regulation and correction of voltage fluctuations. | CHH's AVC protected production line |
Proven reduction in downtime
The AVC protects three microwave generators on one production line with a total KW rating of 300 KW. Since the PCS100 AVC has been installed, there has been a reduction of loss of magnetrons which, has resulted in a considerable decrease in plant downtime.
Mark Stackpole, Carter Holt Harvey's Project Manager stated, "For the four months preceding the installation of the AVC, eight magnetrons were replaced for various reasons. In the four months following the installation, only one magnetron has been replaced and this was probably due to the magnetron reaching end of its life."
This is the first time in New Zealand that ABB's PCS100 AVC has protected industrial microwaves of this size, the largest system to date in the lumber industry, and a first worldwide for ABB AVC for an adhesive curing process.
