PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2020

COMPRESSORS PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 10/20 www.petpla.net 16 Interview with Kris Vermeulen, Global Product Manager PET Compressors and Service Atlas Copco Meeting changing needs by Gabriele Kosmehl Low noise, low vibration, low energy consumption and last but not least high flexibility – Atlas Copco is steadily expanding the range of its popular ZD series over the last 15 years, to meet all compressed air requirements their customers might have. The core of all new developments is energy reduction. PETplanet: Could you start by tell- ing us a bit about your product portfolio in the PET sector? Kris Vermeulen: First, I would like to mention that at Atlas Copco, we have been serving the PET industry for many years. We have built our exper- tise thanks to the close interaction with our customers and this resulted in our approach reflecting the PET industry requirements. A new addition to our solutions is our PET compressor that doesn’t need water: The ZP range delivers a capacity varying from 200m³/h up to 800m³/h. The ZP is a plug and play machine, requiring only an electrical connection to deliver high pressure compressed air. The ZP is also available as fixed speed and variable speed drive (VSD). Our best known solution how- ever is our ZD FF (FF = Full Feature), which delivers a capacity varying from 800m³/h up to 4,100m³/h and can deliver a working pressure up to 42bar. Wehave also expanding this range up to 100bar. The ZD FF is available as a fixed speed unit, but also as a Variable Speed Drive (VSD) unit which we believe helps reduce our customers’ energy costs. PETplanet: Could you explain what you mean by “Full Feature”? Kris Vermeulen: The ZD is always delivered as a Full Feature version, meaning it always includes an adsorption dryer which by the way does not require additional energy. In order to always have a good (pres- sure) dewpoint at any working pres- sure (25-42 bar), we dry the air at interstage pressure with our rotary drum heat of compression adsorp- tion dryer, this down to -20°C PDP, enabling at the final high discharge pressure always dry air (PDP <3 °C). This even when the working pressure is lower than 40 bar, as at lower pres- sure our PDP only improves, where at 30 bar we even have a negative PDP (PDP <0 °C). PETplanet: When you launched the ZD line in 2004, a first in PET compressor design was the piston compressor’s integral concrete base plate which eliminated the need for special foundations of any type. COMPRESSORS