Rittal’s Flexible, Modular System Helps Tri Tech Automation Overcome Challenges in Biofuel Application
March 3, 2020
Tri Tech Automation, an automation partner with nearly 75 years of experience serving the engineering needs of American manufacturers, utilized a Rittal modular solution to overcome challenges with a motor control center application for a customer in the biofuels industry.
The customer required a solution that was limited in height to 70 inches, could handle a large load demand, met a number of safety requirements and could be delivered in a short period of time.
Tri Tech, who has worked with Rittal products for 5 years, proposed a Rittal modular solution to meet all of the system requirements.
“Being able to leverage the Rittal system and meet their required delivery date is actually what won us the business with this first time customer,” said James Maisel, President and Partner at Tri Tech Automation.
Tri Tech took advantage of the Rittal Ri4Power TS 8 product offerings to achieve the successful integration that their customer needed.
Specifying Rittal TS 8 modular enclosures met the project’s height constraints and Tri Tech designed the system with standardized equipment in a variety of options and sizes that satisfied the load requirements. Rittal’s TS 8 modular enclosures are designed to be efficient, flexible, simple and safe solutions that enable greater productivity. Tri Tech specified a range of equipment for the TS 8 enclosures including power monitoring, feeder breakers, dual feeder breakers, full-voltage non-reversing starters, 24VDC fans, Ethernet communication ports and wiring, as well as custom arc flash relays.
“Using the Maxi-PLS busbar system allowed us to leverage a horizontal distribution across the motor control center panels to carry the entire load of 3,000 amps,” explained Maisel. “This was critical to the success of the application.”
Tri Tech designed the system with bus connections from a 3,000-amp molded base circuit breaker to the Maxi-PLS with rigid, tinned copper that maintained the necessary UL-listing for the installation. By using a top horizontal wireway system, Tri Tech was able to develop a fully networked solution for their biofuel customer with all smart devices connected via Ethernet. The wireway structure also creates the ideal distribution for arc flash relay, an invaluable tool to protect people and equipment from dangerous arc hazards.
In addition to meeting safety and specification needs, the availability and flexibility of the Rittal integrated solutions allowed Tri Tech to meet the reduced schedule that their client needed.
“This was the first time we’d worked with this company. They were impressed with both the high-quality and ease of installation for the Rittal solution,” concluded Maisel.
