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Frigel Worldwide leader in Process Cooling and Temperature Control launches
The Innovation: ECODRY SYSTEM 4.0 – „Process-Synchronized Cooling®” for Plastics Industry-

By Daniel Garcia

Ecodry System: The first integrated Cooling Solution for Plastics Industry

Frigel has been the pioneer in introducing the Ecodry System in the Plastics Industry. The revolutionary concept integrates high performance mold cooling units (Microgel) connected to each mold with a close circuit Adiabatic Central System (Ecodry) for overall plant heat dissipation (replacement of old CoolingTower technology). Microgel are super-compact units specifically designed to significantly reduce cooling cycle time in molding applications and combine, in one machine, a water cooled chiller with one or two booster pumps high precision temperature controllers.

For the last two decades this technology has completely changed the way plastics processors approach their cooling and mold temperature control needs. As a result, this technical solution has proven outstanding results to the industry by increasing productivity, drastically reducing running costs and minimizing environmental impact of cooling systems and has been successfully validated on more than 8.000 installations worldwide.

Meanwhile, Frigel has become a worldwide leader and Ecodry System has become The Standard Cooling Solution in Plastics Industry.

The Innovation: Process- Synchronized Cooling – New Ecodry System 4.0

Now, Frigel takes Ecodry System to the Next Level.

The New Approach is based on fully digital connectivity between mold temperature control and molding machine that together with several innovative engineering improvements brings Plastics Cooling and Temperature Control into the future: the Industry 4.0 revolution.

From complex automotive injection molded parts to high speed thin wall packaging, this new „Process- Synchronized Cooling“ approach covers all cooling demands in Plastics Molding with unbeatable performance improvements, cycle time reduction and costs savings together with outstanding reduction of environmental impact.

The system is based on two technologies:

  1. „Process-Synchronized Mold Temperature Control Units“ – complete range from 5C up to 200C (Microgel®, Turbogel®  and Thermogel® )It’s all about delivering: the right temperature, with the right flow, in the right place, and now, “at the right time”.A complete range of Mold Temperature Control Units that cover every specific molding application: number of zones and temperature range; heating, cooling and pumping requirements on each zone of the mold.

    Digitally-synchronized with the molding machines and automatically operated by them, now processors can research the best cooling parameters and cycling sequence of heating and/or cooling on each zone of the mold that maximizes the processing quality and throughput for each specific product.
    These parameters may be memorized and then restored anytime the line manufactures the same product.

  2. „Central Adiabatic Water Cooling System“ (Ecodry®)
    To complete the Ecodry System, all the cooling units installed at each mold are connected to a Central Adiabatic Water Cooling System installed outdoors in order to reject the heat extracted from the processes to ambient. This modular system – an alternative to old-style open circuit evaporative cooling towers – is made of closed circuit adiabatic fluid coolers that can keep the coolant temperature even lower than ambient temperature.Additionally, this central system can also provide direct cooling to all other requirements above ambient temperature, such as hydraulic machines cooling, resin dryers, air compressors, etc.

PERFORMANCE:  The new ECODRY SYSTEM 4.0 brings overall performance to a higher level in Plastics processing. In most applications the net result may now achieve cycle time reductions up to 50%, with improved part quality along with even higher energy savings

  1. Increased Productivity:
    „Process Synchronized Cooling“ guarantees that each mold always runs with shortest cooling time, consistently producing high quality molded parts at the highest throughput. This is due to two main reasons:

    1. Maximum Flexibility. Thanks to the complete range of units available, there is no limitation for settings of coolant temperature (from 5C to 200C) and flow rate delivered to each mold zone for any kind of application.
    2. Perfect Repeatability. The serial communication and synchronization capabilities assures precise temperature control of the mold, with no interference, while the processing equipment always runs steadily at the highest throughput.
  2. Reduced Operating Costs:
    The „ECODRY SYSTEM 4.0“ achieves remarkable running cost savings when compared to traditional central systems: Energy Savings (up to 30%), Water Savings (up to 95%) and Maintenance Costs Savings (up to 90%).
    Energy Savings (up to 30%)
    The new system based on synchronized mold temperature control units, results in high energy savings due to the following main reasons:

    1. Synchronized Cooling
      All the mold temperature controllers units, being serially connected to de molding machines will automatically stop when production is stop saving both refrigeration and pumping energy consumption.
    2. Intelligent use of Chilled water – Microgel
      The new concept allows the use of chilled water only where and when it is needed and running at temperature required by each specific process. For all molds requiring high coolant temperature no chilled water is needed so cooling could be provided from the central adiabatic cooling circuit connected to them, with minimum energy consumption.
    3. Free-cooling opportunities
      The main concept is to use low ambient air cooling instead of refrigeration whenever the ambient temperature allows to. For this purpose, every Microgel integrates the Automatic Free-Cooling feature. The coolant returning from process will be diverted to the adiabatic coolers to be rejected to the ambient air with minimum energy consumption. As a result, the refrigeration compressors will be stopped during “winter” time.

Water Savings (up to 95%)

This concept uses a central Adiabatic Cooling System for heat rejection of the whole thermal load of the plant. This technology operates water evaporation only during short periods of time whenever ambient temperature is extreme (above 30°C). An “on demand” Intelligent Saving Software operates adiabatic mode only when needed. Otherwise, the system runs completely dry.

Maintenance & Safety Costs Savings (up to 90%).

The refrigeration units are made of relatively small chillers, which require low expertise to maintain or repair. The chillers are built with leak-free refrigeration circuits, which makes them almost maintenance free. Operating with innocuous gases, they do not require any specific safety infrastructure, saving all costs involved, including safety insurance policies. On the other hand, the central adiabatic system is a close loop circuit that provides excellent heat transfer with maintenance-free coolant, avoiding scale accumulation and minimizing the need for ongoing water treatment.

  1. Total Modularity:

This Modular, Plug & Play Concept has many additional advantages compared to traditional systems. It is easily expandable at any time, which allows the installation of the precise capacity needed at every stage of the plant growth. Thanks to its modularity, it is also extremely easy to gradually implement even in existing plants, one unit at a time, requiring low level of expertise to engineer, install and operate. Eventually, it could be partially or totally relocated. An additional advantage of this new concept is that it allows processors to know the “cost of refrigeration per line and per product” because each unit can measure and record the specific energy consumption per product

SUSTAINABILITY: The Ecodry System achieves outstanding results in terms of environmental impact reduction.

  1. Reduced “CARBON FOOTPRINT” – up to 50% less

Thanks to its unbeatable energy efficiency and free-cooling opportunities

  1. Almost no “WATER FOOTPRINT” – up to 95% less

Thanks to the Ecodry adiabatic cooling heat rejection technology

  1. Lowest “RISKS OF EMISSIONS”

Th system utilizes innocuous refrigeration gas with the lowest GWP available today and is divided into several separated small circuits. So the risk of emissions in the case of leakage is reduced to a minimum. Additionally, it does not dispose of any water treatment chemicals as evaporative cooling towers do (i.e. “bleed-off”).

For more info please visit: frigel.com

ABOUT THE FRIGEL GROUP

Frigel is a market leader in intelligent process cooling. The Frigel group includes the following companies: Frigel Firenze S.p.A, Frigel Custom Cooling Solutions s.r.l., Frigel Intelligent Energy Solutions s.r.l., Frigel North America Inc., Frigel Asia Pacific Company Ltd, Frigel Latino America Ltda, Frigel GmbH. It also has a worldwide network of agents and distributors.

Frigel manufactures and markets intelligent, integrated, cooling systems, made of a variety of parts, such as the Ecodry adiabatic liquid cooler, Microgel, Heavygel and Multistage chillers and chiller/temperature control units, as well as a full array of pumping and filtration equipment, all designed and engineered to fit specific applications, such as plastic molding, beverage processing, oil&gas and others.

Frigel develops and customizes internally all microprocessor and PLC-based controls for all its products and solutions.  Its products and technology has been proven at more than 6,000 manufacturing installations worldwide. Customer productivity, efficiency and environmental sustainability are at the forefront of any solution developed by Frigel.