Author: Rich Muraca, National Business Development Manager, Packaged Solutions, WEG Electric Corp.

With over 16,000 publically-owned wastewater treatment facilities in the United States, there is a great need for aerators and mixers to support industrial and municipal wastewater treatment operations. Aerators are machines that add air into wastewater, initiating the aerobic bio-degradation of the organic components within the wastewater. One Midwestern manufacturer of aeration systems uses a hyperbaric concept to degas / re-gas large volumes of wastewater very efficiently, with low power consumption as a result of using packaged solutions from WEG.

Working with WEG, the manufacturer of aeration systems was able to achieve:

Enhanced Safety. Safety should be a ‘number one’ priority for every manufacturer. Recognizing the need to improve safety, the manufacturer requested that the Engineers at WEG design into their package a way to safely disconnect the power to their unit. The Engineers at WEG added a main circuit breaker disconnect with a lockable handle to their UL-Certified Motor Control Panel. The Motor Control Panels for all units are now certified to the UL-508-A standard for industrial control panels.

Standardization.  Having previously worked with a Chicago-based mechanical packager, the manufacturer had been using a PLC touch screen to program their VFDs; however, they had not been using the same products every time. (See the ‘old’ control panel shown to the top left). WEG Packaged Solutions standardized all the units, eliminating the PLC and integrating the control function right into the WEG drives’ touch screen. The Engineers at WEG programmed the PLC program into the WEG CFW 11 series Variable Frequency Drives, essentially upgrading the units for ‘plug and play’ operation. The WEG support staff trained the manufacturer’s team on how to perform proper start-up and operation.

Lower costs. The WEG control panel (shown at left) turned out be a lower cost to the manufacturer – even though it has even more features than the control panels provided by the previous supplier.

Positive selling points. Low power consumption. ‘Plug and play’ operation. Lead time of 4 to 6 weeks. These are all key features the aeration systems manufacturer gets to share with their potential customers – all because they choose to work with WEG.

When it comes to producing a product, manufacturers want to keep costs down, have safety designed into their products, and capture positive selling points to share with their customers. When you partner with WEG Packaged Solutions, achieving those goals becomes that much easier.

Learn more by emailing Rich Muraca at WEG Packaged Solutions – rmuraca@weg.net.

About WEG Electric Corp.

Founded in 1961, WEG Electric Corp. has grown into a global solutions provider of industrial electrical technologies. WEG is the largest industrial electric motor manufacturer in the Americas and one of the largest manufacturers of electric motors in the world producing over ten million units annually. Committed

to growth on a global scale, WEG continually invests in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and processes, and the development of new and improved industrial electrical solutions. WEG offers a diverse and integrated product line that includes motors, drives, controls, transformers, generators, and packaged solutions.