May 2019

n MOTORS SUPPLEMENT Direct-drive motors end cooling tower problems at Paris airport T he ADP group, which owns and manages the three principal airports in Paris – Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget – encountered problems with cooling towers at Charles de Gaulle (also known as Roissy). The geared motors used, in conjunction with variable- speed drives, to drive the tower fans were overheating and breakdowns were common especially when the fans had to rotate at low speeds. To try to tackle this problem, the operating range of the VSDs was limited to 22–50Hz, with a standby time introduced at speeds below 22Hz. However, falling oil levels had a negative effect on gear lubrication when restarting the gearbox. “The breakdown of the geared motors and the subsequent failure of the 7MW cooling towers, would occur two to three times a year, and was becoming very disruptive,” explains ADP’s maintenance manager, Gérard Dandeville. “In addition, these breakdowns generated significant maintenance and spare parts costs of up to €15,000 per failure.” ADP decided to take action and defined Cooling towers at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris were suffering frequent and costly failures of their geared-motor drives. By changing to permanent-magnet direct drives, the airport’s operator, ADP, has ended the repeated failures and high maintenance costs, and halved the towers’ energy consumption. Image: Shutterstock AC & DC G d El i M sales@parvalux.com ully Bespoke O Semi-Custom & F Brushed & Brushless eare ectr c otor ww +44(0)1202 512 575 vailable ptions A s .parvalux.com w

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