Revamping and modernising existing energy/heating plants to improve their performance and environmental credentials is an important part of ITAS’ work.
One of the company’s more recent projects in this area in the panel industry was carried out for Italian company Confalonieri SpA of Filago, which makes impregnated decorative papers for application to wood based panels, particularly in the furniture industry. It has several dryers, rotogravure printing machines and impregnation lines.
“The brief was firstly to reduce the amount of rejects of paper and increase the product quality, while lowering
energy costs,explained Mr Pozzoli.
“Rejects were arising, particularly in the production of white or pale coloured papers, due to the high temperature on the exchange surface of the heat exchanger through which process air passed. That air contained organic particles that had escaped filtering and these oxidised, making black spots when they came into contact with the product and rendering it useless.”
The second part of the brief, explained the president, was to reduce the gas consumption in the heating process and the consequent carbon dioxide emissions.
Thirdly, ITAS was tasked to ascertain that the combustion plant was operating in accordance with the legislation in force.
The fourth and final objective was to reduce emissions of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides to the atmosphere.
“After discussions with Confalonieri’s factory director, Mr Ghisleni, it was decided to carry out modifications which would modernise the company’s first multi-zone paper impregnating machine,said Mr Pozzoli.
To this end, ITAS prepared and ran a prototype in its own test centre, taking account of four principal requirements.
“The first was to reduce the temperature of the heat distribution pipe so that this temperature, especially in view of the dwell time, would not oxidise the particles that pass through it,said Mr Pozzoli.
This was achieved by building a suitable hot fumes collector, which also ensured uniform thermal exchange over the whole surface, and by installing an ITAS burner of Type IT200, which is designed to ensure a high minimum/
maximum ratio.
“The very low minimum was used so that, during production stoppages, the burner power is sufficiently reduced to cover the oven dispersions without having to be turned off,explained Mr Pozzoli. “When production restarts, there is no need to carry out a washing phase and oven cooling. This results in a reduction in burner consumption during the restart.
“Furthermore, the combustion system removes the combustion and dilution air from the extraction hood so that the energy can be recovered and the volumes expelled can be reduced.”
The second requirement was achieved as a result of the foregoing, namely a low minimum energy and hood air recovery.
The third requirement concerned the European standards which had to be met in the conversion. The plants were built in accordance with DPR459/96 and EU Directive 2006/42CE (part of Directive 98/37CEE).
Other codes adhered to, said Mr Pozzoli, were: DLsg 81/08; 2006/42/EC; CEI EN 50156-1; CEI EN 62061/EC; EN ISO 12100; CEI ISO 13849-1:2006; 2004-108-CE; EN 60204/1e/2; EN 676; EN 746.
The fourth and final requirement was to drastically reduce rejects and consumption and this, said the president, was achieved to the satisfaction of his customer. The plant went into production on June 17, 2008.
In fact, Confalonieri was so pleased with this first project that it ordered a second plant to be installed on its impregnation line T3, which has 10 zones and is the main force in terms of production quantity at the Filago factory.
ITAS also supplies energy systems to the principal manufacturers of impregnation lines used throughout the global panel and decorative/Kraft paper industry.
The current emphasis on reducing energy consumption, product wastage and toxic emissions has provided many opportunities for ITAS, which has been able to adapt and expand its competences gained from varied industrial areas and a total of more than 10,000 plants supplied worldwide, explained the president.
The company invests heavily in research and development (R&D) and has extensive R&D facilities at its Monza headquarters, where it conceives and develops projects using the latest computer technology and internet communication systems.
The company has that head office and factory, but it also has European offices in Frankfurt, Germany and Barcelona, Spain. It also has agencies in many other European countries and in Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America.
