Legionnaires disease and Legionella prevention using temperature monitoring
It is suggested that in 2016 there was an average of 350 reported cases of Legionnaires disease in the UK.
Legionnaire’s disease is not contagious, although it can be fatal by causing a form of pneumonia. It is formed from an infection by Legionella bacteria found in water and soil. High risk systems can include cooling towers, steamers, showers, baths, air conditioning units and much more.
Reducing the risk of Legionnaire’s disease and Legionella with water systems can best be achieved using temperature monitoring and control. As Legionella thrives between 20°C – 45°C best practice should be to ensure the following temperatures are maintained at all times:
Hot water should be stored above 60°C
Cold water should be kept below 20°C
There are many temperature monitoring solutions on the market that may seem to adhere to these requirements, but only Hanwell Pro monitoring systems provide a flexible and reliable solution to internal, outdoor and remote water and soil monitoring applications.
Manual monitoring and checking of the conditions that allow Legionella to thrive are time consuming, laborious and open to error.
Here at Hanwell Solutions Ltd we have developed several semi and fully automated systems and methods for monitoring, reporting and automatic alarming.
By mixing a combination of wireless monitoring transmitters and handheld thermometers with barcode scanning technology, preventative monitoring becomes a breeze. Hard to access areas can be monitored with wireless sensors that can measure pipe and tank temperatures as well as flow using non-intrusive ultra-sonic clamps on flow meters.
Easier to access places such as wash rooms and shower rooms can be fitted with inexpensive thermocouples leading out to a junction box identified with a unique bar code. To take a measurement the handheld is plugged in to the junction box and an instant reading is taken due to the thermocouple being permanently mounted. Once the reading is taken the barcode is scanned and data is stored.
The handheld data is downloaded by Bluetooth to the central monitoring system keeping all records in one place. Alarms are generated from both wireless sensors and handheld readings alike.
For remote offsite locations our iSense units can be used bringing data into the centralised system using the mobile phone network.
Legal Duties
Those responsible for water systems have certain duties to meet under Health and Safety law. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA), Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999 (COSHH) and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSRW) all cite the HSE’s Approved Code of Practice L8 as the recommended guidelines for the management of risk exposure to Legionella.
Process control equipment is essential to the brick and ceramic industry. Kilns and driers must be serviced and calibrated to only the highest standards to guarantee that your process is as effective as possible. Repairs and maintenance to controllers used in these applications can also be carried out by Ramcare engineers.
Eurotherm Application Overview – EPower & Predictive Load Management
Company: Automotive Parts Processor
Industry: Heat Treatment
Project / Application: Replacement thyristor power switch and load sequencer – vacuum carburizing furnace
Customer Challenge: Modernize power control for easier maintenance. Simplify and improve power control for operators during transformer startup.
Features, Solutions & Services Provided:
3–phase power control system, using EPower™ Controllers in 2-leg control configuration
Predictive Load Management feature with load-shedding
Inrush current suppression on mains transformer
Integrated impedance measurement to monitor graphite heating elements and insulation
Customer Benefits:
Advanced control, data management and visualization in a modular platform solution
A system integrator chose Eurotherm E+PLC400 with E+HMI150 for the retrofit of a vibrating hopper machine control system.
The machine feeds a consistent number of small metal components into a furnace where they are heat treated to increase their strength. The previous SCADA system included a PLC which had become obsolete, and the original program had been lost when the equipment had stopped working. The end customer requirement included modernization and re-engineering of the whole automation system.
A programmable logic controller was required to control the hopper, but some brands were dismissed for being overly complex or costly due to software licencing. The E+PLC400 modular controller was chosen for its free CODESYS® open platform which has programming, debugging and visualization, all in one tool. CODESYS integrated development environment is compliant with all IEC61131-3 languages, allowing for example, the electrical parts to be written in ladder logic and the analogue control to be created in function block diagram (FBD).
As the previous system program and related documentation were not available from the end user, Eurotherm™ application experts provided engineering support to help resolve the operation of the original machine. For consistent delivery of components to the furnace, the new hopper control system was designed utilizing maths equation functionality within E+PLC400 libraries to convert mass measurements to flow rate. Password management provided user level control and helped to protect the system integrator’s engineering IP (intellectual property).
Features, solutions and services included:
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