Process Cooling: Portable Chillers Add PLC Control, Color Touch Screen

Auxiliary equipment supplier Conair’s newest EP2 Series portable chillers—available with air-cooled, water-cooled or remote air-cooled condensers—have a sloped top electrical panel that places the 7-inch color touch screen on the front of the unit at an ideal height and angle for easy viewing and operation.

New capabilities made possible by the PLC control system include digital pump pressure display, compressor/pump/fan running hours and performance trend charts for key operating parameters such as process-fluid temperatures.

The new controls also include Modbus RTU communications as standard, easing integration of the chillers with injection molding machines or plant-wide process monitoring. The control system is also fully compatible with Conair’s cloud-based Industry 4.0 SmartServices platform, which provides equipment monitoring, management and analysis.

An optional, premium EP2 control system has an expanded PLC system with additional communications capabilities, including:

• Modbus TCP/IP
• BACnet MS/TP
• BACnet/IP
• LonWorks
• OPC/UA

The EP2 chillers feature high-efficiency stainless steel brazed plate evaporators, stainless steel pumps and scroll compressors. Variable-speed scroll compressor options on 5-, 10-, 15-, 20- and 30-ton water-cooled and air-cooled chillers provide flexibility and efficiency under varying part-load conditions. The optional variable-speed chillers work only as hard as necessary, reducing power use by automatically adjusting compressor speed.

EP2 air-cooled units have large micro-channel condensers designed for industrial environments. Water-cooled units use cleanable shell-and-tube condensers and include a condenser-water regulating valve to provide constant head pressure. Remote condenser units are available to direct all heat outside the building.