ABB Control of Coventry has won an order valued at approximately Β£80 000 to supply its heavy-duty PS DH soft starters for p u m p a n d fan motors on a new p a i n t f i n i s h i n g line at Jaguar's Cars' Castle Bromwich factory in the UK. The p a i n t line control system is being designed and supplied by Deeside Automation of North Wales, and the main contractor for the overall project is Durr Ltd.
The 73 soft starters will be installed on motors for spray booth extract fans and pumps which remove waste paint/water mix. Ian Pattison of Deeside Automation said "The PS DH units enable us to control the motor start-up more closely, and reduce mechanical and electrical stresses at start-up and when stopping." ABB Control says this helps extend motor lifetime and reduce maintenance costs. The soft starters supplied to Deeside Automation are rated at between 15 kW and 320 kW. Further ABB Control PS soft starters will be installed for other paint finishing line motors at the Castle Bromwich site.
A f u r t h e r r e a s o n for the selection of ABB Control's starters was t h e i r c o m p a t i b i l i t y with the 40 ACS 600s AC drives from ABB Industrial Systems installed on conveyors, supply and extraction fans. "We chose ABB drives because, technically,