Installation and commissioning, 1993.
Sarclad EDT Renewed for Continued Operation
In 1993, Sarclad delivered and commissioned a 72 electrode Rolltex EDT to Cromomed S.A. in Spain. At that time the EDT process was still in its infancy and therefore the installation of the machine was a massive commitment by Cromomed.
Since that installation, Sarclad has continued to fully support the Rolltex machine and maintained stocks of spare parts and components. However, after 25 years of near perfect service, Cromomed decided that the time and market conditions were right to invest in upgrading the machine to future proof it for possibly another 25 years.
The main reason for the upgrade was to alleviate concerns about obsolescence of key components. Sarclad Project engineers studied how to integrate our latest technology with the older generation of Rolltex machines, to achieve these objectives:
- A cost effective solution to provide modern control and automation equipment
- Better reliability and reduced incidences of machine shut down
- Full support and availability of spare parts
- Full support of software
- Improved performance
- A greater range of texture roughness and peak counts
Cromomed placed the order to upgrade the machine in February 2018. The project involved close cooperation between our project manager, procurement team, software and production engineers and the Cromomed operational staff. Equipment was pre-assembled and tested in house prior to being delivered to site 5 months later, ready for the installation team to commence on site in August.
The available shutdown time for work on the EDT machine was extremely limited. Customers continued to require textured rolls for their production during the period and only a small number of rolls could be stockpiled. It was therefore essential that the site work was planned and prepared in great detail to avoid any overrun. Furthermore, Sarclad committed five experienced mechanical, electrical and software engineers who would be able to manage any unexpected issues without needing to refer back to head office.
The planning and attention to detail was successful – on 31st August the main site activities were finished and the upgraded EDT handed over to the customer with the machine having been stopped for only 12 full days. Production was successfully increased to full capacity over the next 7 days.
On completion, Cromomed contacted Sarclad to thank the engineering, site and project management teams for completing a very successful project, where a spirit of hard work and co-operation resulted in a project executed ahead of schedule and to a very high standard.
