Products: Heat Exchangers & Coolers, Electrical Machine Cooling
Industry: Iron, Steel & Non-Ferrous Metals
Location: Bécancours, Canada
Boldrocchi was the only company up to the challenge of engineering and manufacturing 10 enormous transformer coolers for an aluminum smelter in Quebec, Canada. Indeed, the 10 coolers had capacities of 800 kW each with very low oil operating temperatures and represent the highest capacity transformer coolers ever realized. Tamini, an Italian leader in industrial transformers worldwide, contracted Boldrocchi to engineer, manufacture and ship the ten enormous transformer coolers to Alcoa’s aluminum smelting plant in Bécancours, Quebec, Canada.
Alcoa wanted the coolers to function at very low oil operating temperatures, as the lower the temperature of the insulating liquid (oil), the longer the transformer’s lifetime and the lower the maintenance costs. These coolers are indeed the largest oil-to-air coolers Boldrocchi has ever supplied.
Actually, Tamini had not found another company willing to take on the challenge of these huge coolers. Boldrocchi’s team received the data sheet and proposed a solution achieving the desired performance objectives, winning the contract.
Design considerations
- Air ambient temperature 20°C (68°F)
- Oil’s mean rise temperature: 25K @20°C (68°F) design air ambient temperature
- Power supply 380 Vac, 50Hz, 3-phase
- Sound pressure level (SPL): 82dB(A)/unit at 2 meters (6.5 ft)
Manufacturing through shipping
Manufacturing and testing went smoothly. The coolers were 5m long and shipped fully assembled: they were designed to fit into a shipping container in order to reduce transportation costs for the customer.
