Industrial Noise & Vibration Centre

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Award Winning Noise Control Project Saves £1M

corus-fan-noise-control

Posted on: May 4, 2010

A good candidate for the most successful fan noise control project in history…

We have recently celebrated a hugely successful project for the Tata (Corus) steelmaker that has gained us the Rushlight Noise Abatement Award and saved Corus 7 figure sums.

The Rushlight Awards are a celebration and promotion of the leading organizations throughout UK and Ireland which have furthered environmental technology and innovation.

Rushlight Awards Winner environmental noise

The Noise Abatement Technology and Innovation Category award was presented by Gloria Elliott of the Noise Abatement Society at the gala dinner for our fan noise control project at the Corus (now Tata) steelworks at Scunthorpe. The three 4 megawatt fans generated a low frequency hum (c162Hz) over a wide area. As the fan speeds vary, sophisticated resonator silencers were ruled-out and conventional silencers would have imposed a heavy penalty in terms of cost and reduced fan efficiency.

A second opinion saves a million…

Tata steel gas fan stack noise attenuation

Corus approached us for a second opinion as to potential alternatives. Our solution was to develop novel  fan casing modifications, avoiding the need to modify either the existing ductwork or the stacks – thereby minimising downtime. These modifications have eliminated the noise at source for the lifetime of the fan. Significantly, the new fan casings require no ongoing maintenance and do not affect the efficiency of the fan. Moreover, the willingness of Corus to invest in new and innovative technology has reaped very substantial rewards compared with conventional silencing:-

  • 94% reduction in noise (12dB)
  • capital cost savings probably over £800,000
  • substantial environmental benefits (carbon emissions)
  • c £200,000 saved each year on running costs (power and carbon)
“INVC’s modifications have brought about a huge reduction in fan noise, improving the environmental conditions across a wide area around the Plant. They’ve also saved us a large amount of money by negating the requirement for major capital expenditure, so it’s been a remarkably successful project.” – Grahame Wallace, Corus.

Cut your noise control project costs by 50% – 80%
This project is just the latest example highlighting the benefits of our innovative approach to fan noise control at source. Getting an instant second opinion by email from us typically reduces noise control project costs by 50% – 80% – and can even lead to the counter-intuitive result of noise control measures that are actually self-financing. Or you could save time and get a second opinion first by contacting us directly.