The Swedish based engineering group Sandvik has a world-leading position within areas like production of tools for metalworking application. In their newly acquired Italisn facility in Rovereto, Italy, solid carbide end mills for metal cutting and steel tools are being produced. Appr. 130 employees work 3-shifts, 5 days a week, producing over 1.2 million tools a year. The tools are exported worldwide for metal cutting applications in eg. the car industry. Sandvik receives metal bars up to 4m long, which are cut to the size of the respective tool before hardening. The grinding of the tool itself is performed by advanced CNC tool grinding machines. Sandvik pays utmost attention to the high quality of their products and after the grinding of 20-25 tools every CNC machine is thoroughly checked. Deviations in the ambient temperature and relative humidity affects the accuracy of the machine, and microns are crucial when producing high-precision tools. Scrap of tools is a costly affair just as the manual surveillance and check-ups of machines.
When Sandvik inagurated new facilities in Rovereto, attention was paid to control the climate in the production area. Situated in North Italy, the climate over the year changes from cold winterdays to hot and humid summerdays. To secure the optimal operation of the sophisticated CNC machinery a strict control of the indoor climate was necessary. From other Sandvik plants the management had very positive experience with Munters air handling systems like DesiCool. The local HVAC-installer Ivano Gasperotti and Munters cooperated in finding the best solution, and Munters' new energy efficient DryCool-system met the demands from Sandvik, Rovereto. DryCool controls both temperature and humidity in only one system and with built-in energy recovery features, the solution is superior as to energy efficiency. With DryCool Sandviks original chiller capacity need was reduced in summer by 60%, from 310kW with normal cooling coils to 123kW.
Munters’ DryCool airhandling unit that controls temperature and humidity independently, was found to be a perfect solution for Sandvik, Rovereto. 20,000m3 air is conditioned in the outdoor DryCool ERV unit to conditions at 22°C/45%RH. During summer time the system will secure comfortable and dry cooling of the production facility. During winter time the exhaust air at 21°C is partly recovered and mixed with the outside air, raising the air inlet temperature from eg. 4°C to 14°C, saving costly energy for heating. The temp.efficiency (heat recovery) during winter is 78%.
Benefits for Sandvik
The new system opens possibilities for expanding production capacity for Sandvik. When climate conditions around the CNC machines are effectively controlled the need for manual surveillance decreases. This will enable production during weekends where the production is now closed due to high personnal costs for surveillance. The need of surveillance in general can be reduced, meaning less manpower = less costs.
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