AMCP (Advanced Metal Casting Centre) - Brunel University
Following on from the successful delivery of the AMCC (Advanced Metal Casting Centre) building, Palcon Energy Services Ltd were invited to provide the design and installation of the Trend based Building Management System in the latest addition to the National Metals Research Park (NMRP) at Brunel Universities West London campus.
The new purpose built research facility will be home to the Advanced Metal Processing Centre (AMPC) and the Constellium R&D Centre for Automotive Structures and Industry on the Advanced Light Metals Research Park at Brunel. Establish with £15m funding from the HEFCE UKRPIF initiative to provide solutions to the light-weighting challenges of the automotive industry, it aims to compliment the facilities in the AMCC (Advanced Metal Casting Centre) building, to develop and trial innovative light alloys and components for automotive applications, along with advanced instruments for component testing, performance evaluation and state-of-the-art facilities for process modelling and simulation.
Like AMCC, the key to the operation of the facility and the equipment it houses, is the complex 'process cooling water system' and its removal of heat from the latest metal alloy casting machines. Built around a number of open loop storage and transfer tanks with BMS controlled plate heat exchangers, each casting station is provided with process cooling water at the precise temperatures required, with any excess heat being removed from the system by a roof mounted adiabtic cooler.
Environmental control of the vast structure is again provided via Ambirad and Monodraught systems, this time interfaced directly into the Trend BMS system using BACnet/IP providing increased visibility and clarity of its operation to the Universities Estates Department via a Trend 963 Supervisor. Office areas and meeting spaces are controlled by a conventional gas boiler system complimented with Nuaire Heat Recovery Ventilation units (MVHRs).
Built on the specialised software routines developed previously for AMCC by Palcon Energy Services Ltd, and further advanced to suit the new installation and critical nature of the process cooling system, the system encompassed the provision of a dedicated MCP (motor control panel) fitted with the latest Trend IQ4e BACnet compatible controllers to control all aspects of the buildings operation.
Connected to the site wide Ethernet infrastructure, the system is monitored for performance and critical alarms by the universities Estates Department via a Trend 963 Server.
