Liebherr Erskine Park, NSW AUSTRALIA
CASE STUDY
Schwank Gas Radiant Overhead Tube Heaters – NSW
The Facility
Liebherr is an international leader in the manufacturing of construction machinery specialising in cranes, aircraft parts, and mining with over 38,000 employees in over 130 countries, Liebherr has been long-standing for over 32 years.
The Erskine Park, NSW facility was newly built in 2012 with a number of workshops designed for the repairs and maintenance of crane machinery. With over 80 staff in this facility, ensuring comfortable working conditions throughout the year was of utmost importance.
The size of the space heated with high efficiency Schwank Gas Radiant Overhead Tube Heaters was approximately 2600m2 with a mounting height between 9.5m-12m and 4 zones. Air changes were estimated around 1.5 per hour and the estimated heat loss of the facility was approximately 580 kW.
Implementation
Twelve calorSchwank tube heaters (5 x 40U & 7 x 30U) were specified in the design for this application after taking into consideration the large enclosed area of the space that required heating and its ceiling height. The designed comfort setting for the area being heated was 16°C as measured by a black bulb.
The calorSchwank ensured low running costs and a fast pay back as the heaters were required to run for long periods of time. The radiant heat factor of the calorSchwank was extremely high sitting at 70% and its modulation capabilities allowed for better overall control of the system and higher efficiency. The design of these heaters helped to minimise the amount of convection heat thereby achieving a high radiant factor and improving the efficiency.
A single Schwank ThermoControl Plus M4 controller applied to 4 heating zones at the Erskine Park facility was used to control the heating system. It was also set up to control the Ridge Ventilator, enabling appropriate ventilation and the proper disposal of combustion gases when the burners were running.
