Four bespoke ATEX fans built for offshore Brazil project
Facing a challenging brief, the UK headquartered firm, Elta Fans has recently designed and manufactured four custom, explosion-proof fans for use on an offshore oil and gas application in Brazil.
Needing to follow the customer and end user’s pre-defined specification, in addition to a small installation footprint, Elta Fans’ Applied Technology engineers built four bespoke fans at its Fareham-based factory. The 1,120mm diameter, stainless-steel long cased axial units utilised marine-grade aluminium impellers, stainless-steel 316L casings, terminal boxes and ancillaries to withstand the harsh offshore, salt-laden environment.
Along with being durable, a key requirement was making sure the fans were explosion-proof and complied with the customer’s design requirements, in addition to offshore and Brazilian safety regulations. As such, the fans were built with C5M-painted Zone 1 ATEX motors, BFOU cabling, and stainless-steel glands. To comply with the Brazilian standard NR-37, motor cowls, access doors and internal terminal boxes were painted to colour RAL 2008.
For the end-user’s monitoring requirements, the fan models came equipped with shock pulse monitoring (SPM) sensors and a cable transit system to wire the coaxial cable to an externally fan mounted terminal box. Accounting for vibration during installation, the fan mounting plate was paired with anti-vibration mounts.
Leading on the project, Lewis Brand at Elta Fans, said: “Working on applied technology projects means working through customer specifications to ensure we’re designing the best fan for their application, and working with customers throughout a project is something we pride ourselves on. This project really showcases our engineering capability; four unique fans that we have manufactured to the highest quality and that will stand the test of time.”
Built and tested to withstand the harshest of environments
On each project it works on, Elta designs and builds its ATEX fans to the exacting area, zone and category requirements. Manufactured to meet the requirements of the ATEX Directive, IEC standards and EN14986, its comprehensive range of axial fans for hazardous applications carry the proper equipment marking for its zone.
The firm’s ATEX fans are designed to meet all requirements of a given project and utilise components that are certified under ATEX. Additionally, the company’s manufacturing capabilities allow it to meet specific overseas hazardous classifications with a variety of flexible component options.
