Eaton Switchboards Assist In Flour Mill Upgrade

Switchboard supplier EMS has selected switchboards in Eaton's Moeller Modan range to assist in the completion of an upgrade to a Heygates flour mill in Tring, Hertfordshire. The task of upgrading the electrical equipment in the mill posed two key challenges. The first was that the space available to accommodate the new switchboards was extremely limited. The second was that, as the mill operates continuously and downtime is costly, it was necessary for Heygates to be able to carry out maintenance and fault-finding work on, for example, individual motor starters, without shutting down the whole plant.

EMS knew from its work on previous projects that switchboards from Eaton's Moeller Modan range would provide a complete and cost-effective solution to both problems. While the Modan switchboards are available in a variety of configurations, for this application the engineers chose the Modan W. Because Modan W uses withdrawable and removable plug-in units, function modules can be exchanged even while the system is live, allowing a high level of availability to be achieved.

Also, the user-friendly design of the plug-in units facilitates handling and guards against operator errors. These features made it easy for EMS to satisfy Heygate's requirement for safe working on individual sections of the plant while the remainder was still operational. In addition, the Modan design offers a high stacking density - up to 30 withdrawable units can be accommodated in each section - allowing the best possible use to be made of the limited space available. The versatility of the switchboards was another key issue in making them particularly suitable for this demanding project.

They can accommodate starters up to 200kW and power-outgoing sections up to 630A and are also readily adaptable to house other types of control and distribution equipment. At Heygates, this flexibility allowed EMS to build into the switchboard sections containing Eaton's Moeller DF51 variable speed drives, DM4 soft starters and several 12-way distribution boards, as well as conventional starters ranging from 1.1 kW direct-on-line to 30 kW star-delta. For ease of assembly and maintenance, all of the starters on the project used Eaton's Moeller xStart contactors and motor protection circuit breakers.

The contactors and breakers were linked using the range's tool-less connector system. This not only reduces the time needed for panel wiring, but also virtually eliminates the risk of wiring errors, thereby also saving time in testing and commissioning. Each of the six boards supplied for the project is a free-standing floor mounting assembly approximately 4m long, with an IP54 ingress protection rating. All of the boards are arranged to provide Form 4, Type 5 segregation between the functional units, and are supplied with type-tested assemblies in accordance with BS EN 60439-1.

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