FOOD PROCESSING

PROBLEM: Heat sinks collect materials in food processing plant ... if they are not washed clean.
A long standing customer with food processing plants has used dozens of TECA Model AHP1200X air conditioners over the years. The air-conditioners worked great, except for one thing....... after years of service, the units would come back to TECA with their heat sinks and fans clogged with a hardened paste which seems to be made from corn flower, water and dirt!

SOLUTION: Change from air to liquid cooling of the customers equipment.
Working with this customer for a better solution; TECA developed a liquid cooled version of AHP1200X. This means that there is no heat sink and no fan on the outside of the customer’s enclosure. This customer uses available re-cycling plant water coupled with TECA’s liquid heat exchanger to remove the waste heat.

MANUFACTURING

PROBLEM: Video cameras needed to function in an environment beyond their rated temperature range.
One of our customers wanted to position cameras to observe a process from a location not safe for operators to go. The customer is a rubber manufacturer and the camera location was too hot for the cameras to work in. The customer had the cameras, but had no suitable enclosure, or cooling apparatus.

SOLUTION:
TECA adapted a tiny air conditioner based on Model AHP150XE to mount to a standard commercial enclosure. The package was completed by retrofitting the cameras with insulation and special cooling units. The design satisfied our customer’s needs to a “T”.

ROOFTOP EQUIPMENT ENCLOSURE

PROBLEM: Construct a demonstration life test to illustrate the durability of TECA Thermoelectric Cooling.

As of this writing, the system has been operating trouble free for over 40,000 hours.
Back in March of 2001 TECA Corporation engineering team set up a test to evaluate functionality and life of it’s then new XE series of solid state thermoelectric air conditioners under real life out door environment conditions.
Model AHP-1800XEHC Heat/Cool air conditioner was chosen as a representative model.

Photos of the system under test, click on the images for larger view.

SOLUTION: Place a working computer system within a protective enclosure on an exposed rooftop – maintain temperature with a TECA sold state air conditioner.
The unit is installed on a 2’ X 3’ X 3’ stainless steel enclosure with a Pentium Class tower case computer and a 15” CRT monitor inside running continuously. The enclosure is mounted 10” above the roof of the TECA Corporation building and is exposed entirely to the elements. Several sensors inside and outside of the enclosure sense the internal and ambient temperatures and relay the readings to a Data Acquisition Board installed in the computer. The data is accessible from engineering office workstation via network connections.
The computer and monitor running continuously inside the enclosure also act as a “heat load”.
The AHP-1800XEHC is set up by means of the standard TC-3F to keep the internal temperature of the enclosure between 35C Maximum and 10C minimum by functioning either as an air conditioner or as a heater. When the temperature inside the enclosure rises above 35C the AHP-1800XEHC switches to cooling mode and lowers the temperature. When the temperature inside enclosure drops to 10C the AHP-1800XEHC switches to heat mode and raises the temperature.

Temperature charts, click on the images for larger view.

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

PAPER MILL

PROBLEM: The environment of a paper mill is hostile to most equipment. Could a thermoelectric cooler stand up to such conditions?

SOLUTION:  TECA’s Model AHP-1200X Solid State Air Conditioner

This TECA model AHP-1200X was returned to TECA for evaluation, after over 120,000 hours of duty. It just did not seem to cool as much any more. As a matter of fact, it was originally put to work in 1992 cooling an electronic enclosure in a paper mill. The customer was sure it needed to be replaced, but sent it back to us to see if anything could be salvaged. In our inspection we found that the hot side heat sink was fouled with 14 years of newsprint sludge. Once the goop was cleaned out and the fan was free to spin; the unit ran like a charm!

COMMUNICATIONS

 PROBLEM: Maintain the temperature of a battery bank in a Class 1 Division 2 explosion proof environment to power portable communications equipment.

A special purpose vehicle manufacturer needed to maintain the temperature of a bank of batteries to maintain maximum performance.

SOLUTION:
With our recommendation, the customer selected the TECA Model AHP1800XP, because it is the only NEMA4X air conditioner available off-the-shelf, which is also certified for C1D2 use.  The power source was able to meet the requirement of operation in a Class 1 Division 2 explosion proof environment, to support portable communications systems at car racing venues.

BOTTLING QC

PROBLEM: Cool control panels of Quality Control equipment, with limited space available.

A manufacturer of quality control equipment used in automated bottling operations needs to provide cooling for the control panels of high speed quality-control machines for his customer's production lines.

SOLUTION: TECA FHP750 air conditioner.
This air conditioner is externally mounted so it does not intrude into the customer's useable enclosure space. A flush mounted air conditioner was important in this case because of limited space inside the panels.

TRANSPORTATION

PROBLEM: Standardize on one air conditioner for application on enclosures with many different heat-load conditions.
An air conditioner was needed as a special purpose cooler for electrical enclosures on a World Class rapid transit system. The customer has hundreds of air conditioned enclosures in their system, with different heat load conditions, but for reasons of economy, they wanted to standardize on one air conditioner model.

SOLUTION: TECA developed a new model, the AHP-1501 for this customer.
For adding cooling capacity, the Model AHP1501 can be mounted line to line in compact groups of up to (6) units. It operates from 120 volts and 240 volts, has a built in temperature control and has now been made an off the shelf offering for all of our customers.

FOOD PROCESSING  

PROBLEM: A European manufacturer of special equipment for processing fruits and vegetables needed to cool sensitive electronics on their line of produce-processing machines, which sort products by color, size and weight.

SOLUTION: TECA Model AHP1200XE solid state air conditioners.
The equipment in use is washed down frequently, so the Model AHP1200XE is ideal because it is designed to meet NEMA4 and suitable for wash-down environments, while it also carries the CE Mark.

TRANSPORTATION

PROBLEM: A specialist manufacturer of transport cases needed to protect electronic equipment from harsh, high stress conditions in transport, needed a suitable way to add cooling.

SOLUTION: TECA Model AHP1201XE solid state air conditioners.

The AHP1201XE is designed and certified for use in NEMA4 environments including wash-down and outdoor installation. Our customer also opted for dual voltage capability (120/240 VAC) with a voltage selection switch.

MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENT:

PROBLEM:  A motor and drive manufacturer was experiencing over heating problems with an overhead hoist and crane. Heat buildup in overhead hoist, but space within the enclosure was at a premium.

SOLUTION: A model FHP-2850 flush mount solid state air conditioner offered a non-invasive solution to maintain the enclosure temperature, allowing the variable frequency drives to function normally under all operating conditions.

VIDEO PROJECTION

PROBLEM: A ruggedized enclosure for a military video projector caused excessive heat to build up from the high wattage bulb.

SOLUTION: A more rugged version of TECA's AHP-1200FF thermoelectric cooler / solid state air conditioner is used by military to cool a projector.
For detail information such as inlet and outlet air temperatures etc.... open the PDF file.

For detail information such as inlet and outlet air temperatures etc.... click on the image and open the PDF file.

COMMUNICATIONS

PROBLEM: A major manufacturer of communications equipment was to go into production of special equipment enclosures, then encountered unforeseen problems with overheating electronics deep inside.  

The customer wanted air conditioning, but specified that no part of the air conditioner could protrude outside of their enclosure.

OUTDOOR KIOSK APPLIANCE STATIONS

PROBLEM: An original equipment manufacturer designed a new outdoor information kiosk and required a small cooling solution, before they could start up manufacturing.

SOLUTION: TECA Model AHP300XE Solid State Air Conditioner.

We consulted with the customer's engineers and recommended TECA Model AHP300XE, to provide the necessary cooling in a compact size. The AHP300XE is an ideal choice for the application because it is a NEMA4 solid state air conditioner, designed for outdoor use.

FACTORY AUTOMATION

 PROBLEM: An automation manufacturer required exact temperature control in a system for pharmaceutical research and development.  

SOLUTION: TECA Model FHP-2850 solid state air conditioners provide temperature control for a highly complex plate storage/imaging system.  

Up to 754 plates are stored in the system, with random access for scheduled internal plate imaging.  The remainder of the system generates the plates used in various experiments and dispenses small-volumes of chemicals, then seals and returns the plates in storage.  Excess heat could cause a system failure.

ELECTRONIC IMAGING

PROBLEM: A leading manufacturer of video cameras and mobile electronics communications for law enforcement needed a dependable source thermoelectric coolers.

The company had been “thrown for a loop” when their previous thermoelectric vendor admitted that they couldn't meet the delivery promised on a standard cooling assembly.

SOLUTION: An engineer for the vendor responded that TECA was the best choice if they wanted quality and delivery.

One week and several phone calls later, 16 customized assemblies based on TECA's model AHP-150FF were delivered in time for testing and installation.

MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS

PROBLEM: A branch of the US military had a need for cooling a small enclosure containing a critical voice communication system.

The shipboard system had to be resistant to salt water corrosion as well as pass stringent shock and vibration testing.  

SOLUTION: A modification to TECAs AHP-300X solid air conditioner allowed the unit to meet specializing and air flow requirements and pass these tests.  The challenge was to overcome the small available space both inside and outside the enclosure.  The heat sinks were turned so that the heat rejection air flow and internal cold side air flow moved in different directions.  

This unit is a prime example of how flexible Team TECA is when customer needs require customization of standard products.

NUCLEAR ENERGY

PROBLEM: Need to cool equipment used for quality control inspection of pipes in nuclear energy plants.

Evaluating the condition of pipes in nuclear power plants can be time consuming and costly. Automated and remote guided methods are available. Much of the electronics for the job must be rugged and durable, capable of handling many environmental conditions.

SOLUTION: TECA designed, tested and built a system around standard portable cases. The unit shown is the prototype of the production unit, built into the top of a transportation case.

Doing the design and prototype work of this nature often leads to happy customers and production jobs for TECA, as it did in this case!

AVIONICS MAINTENANCE

PROBLEM: Create a portable cooling system for diagnostic equipment to allow troubleshooting of avionics systems while still installed.

Troubleshooting and diagnosing avionics problems is hard enough on the bench. To save valuable time, technicians would rather get it done while the electronics are still in the aircraft. Also, under harsh environments, it is difficult to keep cutting edge electronics functioning the way they should. 

SOLUTION: When it came to the type of portable cooling for the diagnostic equipment required for these jobs; a navy contractor came to TECA for the solution. We helped design and build the solution shown in its prototype form around the portable enclosure. TECA completed the project on a tight schedule, which called for teamwork and attention to detail.