Consumables

Gulf News: Custom-made Cofely cooling concept on new KBA Cortina hybrid installation

Thursday 13. September 2012 - i.Cool masters challenge in the desert of Dubai

The Emirate of Dubai was recently able to add another first to its list of attractions. On 1st June this year, the first waterless KBA Cortina newspaper press to be installed outside Europe went on stream in the print center of the renowned daily newspaper Gulf News in Dubai Investment Park, a modern industrial complex 60 km outside the city.
Like most of the other Cortinas in service to date, the Gulf News press was also equipped with a custom-made cooling solution from Cofely. Working on a commission from Al Nisr Publishing LLC, a media and publishing house whose name is known far beyond the Middle East, the print industry specialists from the AXI.PRINT division of Cofely Deutschland GmbH (Freiburg) planned and realized a high-performance full system solution to ensure ideal production conditions for the highly automated KBA Cortina.
Know-how for both extreme heat and cold
The desert climate in Dubai, where temperatures often exceed the 40°C mark, and not at least the high demands placed on the overall package by Al Nisr, represented a significant challenge for AXI.PRINT, but one which was then mastered with flying colours thanks to Cofely’s outstanding system competence and the extensive experience gained from many other technically sophisticated projects.
Highly efficient i.Cool systems are in operation with numerous newspaper, commercial web and sheetfed printers in all the world’s climatic zones. Even extremes of heat and cold, whether the latest Gulf News project in Dubai or previous Cortina projects with KBA in the cold north of Europe at Botnia Print in Kokkola (Finland) or MittMedia Print in Sundsvall (Sweden), are no problem for the Cofely solutions.
High demand profile
The demands to be met by the i.Cool CompactCenter installed at Gulf News were high. Provisions were to be made for the press-specific temperature control for 12 printing towers and 4 heatset dryers, alongside the demand-driven distribution of up to 2.5 MW of cooling output. Even under the taxing
conditions which prevail in Dubai, the i.Cool reference installation can be characterized by its high control precision, fast regulation response and the extremely high system availability and operational reliability.
One supplier for all
It is no real surprise that Al Nisr decided in favour of the convincing Cofely cooling package. i.Cool-CompactCenter is a proven solution with an established market reputation and tested press interfaces. It not only guarantees optimum parameter control and precise temperature regulation, but also promises ultimate user-friendliness thanks to its AXI.COS control and visualisation functionality.
Full service builds a confidence base
A total of four Quantum chillers with a combined output of around 12 MW take care of pleasant temperatures in the Gulf News print center. One important decision criterion, alongside confidence in Cofely’s technical competence, was the possibility to obtain a complete cooling package from a single supplier. The AXI.PRINT specialists took over the whole planning, engineering, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of the systems on site. The Cofely systems provide cooling for both the press line and the building.
Quantum chillers handle production peaks
The overall cooling demand at the new Gulf News production location amounts to 10,400 kW. To ensure that production continues to run smoothly even at full capacity, the Cofely cooling package comprises four water-cooled Quantum chillers with high-efficiency compressors featuring magnetic bearings and a cooling output of 2,840 kW each. Each chiller is integrated into a container with three cooling towers, together with the associated basins, pumps and filters. The cold generation in each system container is completely independent of the rest of the cooling network. This redundant configuration guarantees especially high availability and operational reliability for the system as a whole – one of the key demands of client Al Nisr.
A further container accommodates the pump station for the overall installation and the central controller for all five containers. An additional benefit of the Cofely system at Gulf News is the modular concept, which permits simple expansion of the system at any point in the future. At the same time, the
operating and maintenance costs are so low, that the whole investment will have been recouped already after just a few years.