Overview
Airedale Air Conditioning is a world leader in the design, manufacture and supply of precision air conditioning, chillers, condensing units and IT cooling solutions.
Founded in 1974, the company has a head office in Rawdon, West Yorkshire, and further offices in London and the Middle East, from where it supplies tailored solutions to customers across the globe.
Project date: Ongoing
Project overview: Service contracts, plus the supply and installation of equipment, parts and pipework.
What was needed
Providing maintenance and service contracts for two Atlas Copco VSD compressors and two driers installed by PPS at the company’s factory. Ongoing purchase, installation and maintenance of pneumatics. In July 2017, we also carried out a pipework installation.
What we did
Whenever Airedale has issues with its machinery or compressed air supply, the maintenance engineer can contact PPS direct for help and support, either on the phone or in person.
Example 1:
Recently, Airedale’s maintenance engineer noticed a slight difference in sound when checking the compressor and contacted PPS for help. An engineer from PPS responded swiftly and discovered that some internal ducting had collapsed. He commended Airedale for calling him out, as it could have seriously damaged the compressor if left running as it was. Temporary compressor ducting was provided from PPS stocks until the part was sourced and the compressor repaired.
Example 2:
An engineer from PPS data logged the company’s compressors to monitor their performance. During the testing, anomalies to efficiencies were highlighted. As PPS had supplied the compressors to the building and manufacturing requirements, we spent some time taking an in-depth look at the operation and configuration of the compressors, as well as checking them for leaks, before resolving the issue by altering some of the settings.
Example 3:
PPS had helped Airedale to reduce energy use by isolating the compressors from the main valves so that these could be turned off when the compressors were not in use. However, it was found that taps on the nitrogen generators were being left open over the weekend so the compressors were running when the factory was not in operation. This led to the development of new internal procedures.
Why PPS?
In 2013, PPS supplied new air compressors after a major fire at Airedale’s plant in Rawdon. When John Dempsey took over as Manufacturing Systems/Facility Maintenance Team Leader, there was already a three-year contract in place for compressor servicing. After experiencing how quickly PPS engineers responded to issues with the compressors and checking that the quotes were competitive, he also awarded PPS the maintenance contract for the company’s nitrogen generation equipment. This also has the benefit of keeping the servicing of all of Airedale’s air products under one umbrella.
Key benefits
By working closely with the engineers at PPS, Airedale has been able to ensure that their compressors and pneumatics are working at optimum performance, which has helped to control energy costs – something that Airedale’s parent company is keen for the organisation to address.
The service contracts provide peace of mind and ensure that any issues are quickly rectified. “The engineers are very proactive: they usually respond within a day – sometimes on the same day,” says John Dempsey.
“The engineers are competent and responsive, and the company is proactive and supportive whilst being competitive. PPS is also very transparent. If somethings going wrong, they will come and tell us, there’s no battle on our hands to find out where issues lie. They take the time to look at the configurations, see whether our machines are working efficiently and check for leaks, rather than trying to upsell to us. If any staff leave, there’s very good handover ethics, which makes for a smooth and easy transition and reduces the impact on the customer.”
John Dempsey, Manufacturing Systems/Facility Maintenance Team Leader