AMHARA PIPE FACTORY INTERNSHIP REPORT

AMHARA PIPE FACTORY (APF)

BY
BEREKET
HAKIMA
SILESH LAKE
ZEMEN BIYADGO

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Power House

Power house is a place where power is stored and distribute to the factory. 15kV is came from
the source and this is stepped down to 380V by delta star connected step down transformer.
There are five three phase transformers connected in parallel to step down this source. This
stepped down power enters to the main circuit board and then to the capacitor banks, which is
used to store, distribute and maintain the power factor.

These capacitor banks are merely grouping of several capacitors of the same rating. Capacitive
banks store energy when it is connected to a charging circuit and release that energy when
discharged. Capacitor banks are used to store electrical energy and condition the flow of that
energy. Increasing the number of capacitors will increase the capacity of energy that can be
stored on a single device.

Capacitor banks are also used for power factor correction. Let us discuss about power factor.

Power Factor

The power factor is defined as the ratio of the active power (P) and volt-amperes. The active
power is the real power which is assumed in an AC circuit, whereas volt-amperes is the apparent
power which is produced in the circuit when the waves of voltage or current are not in phase.

Equation (1) shows that the current is affected by the power factor. Hence, for a given power P
by the load, the current I, taken by the load varies inversely as the load power factor cosΦ. Thus,
a given load takes more current at a low power factor than it does at a high power factor.

Disadvantages of low power factor

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The undesirable effect of operating a low load at a low power factor is due to the large current
required for a low power factor. The important disadvantages of low power factor are

 Higher current is required by the equipment, due to which the economic cost of the
equipment is increased.
 At low power factor, the current is high which gives rise to high copper losses in the
system and therefore the efficiency of the system is reduced.
 Higher current produced a large voltage drop in the apparatus. This results in the poor
voltage regulation.

Since both the capital and running cost are increased, the operation of the system at low power
factor (whether it is lagging or leading) is uneconomical from the supplier’s point of view.

Difference Between Active & Reactive Power

The most significant difference between the active and reactive power is that the active power is
the actual power which is dissipated in the circuit. Whereas, the reactive power is the useless
power which only flows between the source and load.

Definition of Active Power

The power which is dissipated or do the useful work in the circuit is known as the active power.
It is measured in watts or megawatts. The active power is denoted by the capital alphabet P. The
average value of power in the circuit is given by the expression.

Definition of Reactive Power

The reactive power moves between the source and load of the circuit. This power is not doing
any useful works on the load. Q represents the reactive power, and it is measured in VAR. The
reactive power is stored in the circuit, and it is discharged by the induction motor, transformer or
by solenoids.

Water Chiller

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Plastic pipe manufacturing processes require chilled water to cool the water tank down to the
proper temperature and furthermore to cool the output plastic products, which will pass through
the water tank, last to improve quality and decrease scrap.

Chilled water systems include both supply and return piping in a closed circuit.  Water is cooled
by the chiller and “supplied” to cooling coils or heat exchangers, where it in turn cools air or a
process by absorbing energy. Thus warmed, the water is “returned” to the chiller to start the
process over again. 

Chilled water systems are closed loop systems, which means they are sealed from the
atmosphere and do not need extensive chemical treatment to control contamination and
corrosion.

PVC Manufacture

Basically, PVC products are formed from raw PVC powder by a process of heat and pressure.
The production flows the following procedure.

Polymer and additives (1) are accurately weighed (2) and processed through the high speed
mixing (3) to blend the raw materials into a uniformly distributed dry blend mixture. At various
stages of the mixing process, the additives melt and progressively coat the PVC polymer
granules. After reaching the required temperature, the blend is automatically discharged into a
cooling chamber which rapidly reduces the temperature thereby allowing the blend to be
conveyed to intermediate storage (4) where even temperature and density consistency are
achieved.

The heart of the process, the extruder (5), has a temperature-controlled, zoned barrel in which
rotate precision “screws”. Modern extruder screws are complex devices, carefully designed with

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varying flights to control the compression and shear, developed in the material, during all stages
of the process.

The PVC dry blend is metered into the barrel and screws, which then convert the dry blend into
the required “melt” state, by heat, pressure and shear. During its passage along the screws, the
PVC passes through a number of zones that compress, homogenise and vent the melt stream. The
final zone increases the pressure to extrude the melt through the head and die set (6) which is
shaped according to the size of the pipe required and flow characteristics of the melt stream.
Once the pipe leaves the extrusion die, it is sized by passing through a precision sizing sleeve
with external vacuum. This is sufficient to harden the exterior layer of PVC and hold the pipe
diameter during final cooling in a controlled water cooling chambers (8).

The pipe is pulled through the sizing and cooling operations by the puller or haul-off (9) at a
constant speed. Speed control is very important when this equipment is used because the speed at
which the pipe is pulled will affect the wall thickness of the finished product. In the case of
rubber ring jointed pipe the haul-off is slowed down at appropriate intervals to thicken the pipe
in the area of the socket.

An in-line printer (10) marks the pipes at regular intervals, with identification according to size,
class, type, date, Standard number, and extruder number. An automatic cut-off saw (11) cuts the
pipe to the required length.

A belling machine forms a socket on the end of each length of pipe (12). There are two general
forms of socket. For rubber-ring jointed pipe, a collapsible mandrel is used, whereas a plain
mandrel is used for solvent jointed sockets. Rubber ring pipe requires a chamfer on the spigot,
which is executed either at the saw station or belling unit.

As an electrical engineer we use different materials and flow the required processes and control
methods to get the desired product. Those materials and control systems that we have seen in the
factory are:

Contactor

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A contactor is an electrically-controlled switch used for switching an electrical power circuit. A

Contactor

 It consists of three main parts they are

Coil

It provides a force which is required to close the contact. The coil is also named as an
electromagnet. An enclosure is used to safeguard the coil and contactor.

Enclosure

It acts like an insulator and protector, which protects the circuit form any electrical contact, dust,
oil, etc. They are made up of different materials like Nylon 6, Bakelite, Thermosetting plastic,
etc.

Contacts

The main function of this is that it carries the current to various parts of the circuit. There are
classified into contact springs, axillary contacts, and power contacts. Where each of the contacts
has its own functions, which is explained in principle of operation of the contactor.

Encoder

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An encoder is a device, circuit, transducer, software program, algorithm or person that converts
information from one format or code to another. The purpose of encoder is standardization,
speed, secrecy, security, or saving space by shrinking size. Encoders are combinational logic
circuits and they are exactly opposite of decoders. They accept one or more inputs and generate a
multi-bit output code. Here the pipe factory uses it for speed control.

Impedance

Impedance is a device used to minimize starting current. When motor starts, the starting current
is too high that may damage the entire system. So it should be minimizes. To do this we use
impedance.

DC Drive

Definition: The DC motor drive is a type of amplifier or power modulator that integrate between
the controller and a DC motor. It takes the low current and then converts it into a high current
which is appropriate for the motor. The DC motor drive also provides the high current torque,
400 % more than the rated continuous torque.

AC Drive

An AC drive is a device that is used to control the speed of an electric motor. The speed is
controlled by changing the frequency of the electrical supply to the motor. The types of motors
that ac drives control are normally operating at constant speed. Enabling the user to control the
speed of motor potentially gives him various benefits in terms of process control, system stress
and energy savings.

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AC drive control diagram

Sensors

Define a Sensor as an input device which provides an output (signal) with respect to a specific
physical quantity (input). It can also defined as a device that converts signals from one energy
domain to electrical domain.

The term “input device” in the definition of a Sensor means that it is part of a bigger system
which provides input to a main control system (like a Processor or a Microcontroller).

Sensors that we see in the factory are the following:

Proximity sensor

A Proximity Sensor is a non-contact type sensor that detects the presence of an object. Proximity
sensors are used across a broad range of industrial and manufacturing applications. They’re used
to sense the presence of objects or materials and then either initiate some action or simply flag
their presence or absence. Key to their operation is that they don’t require physical contact with
the target or object being sensed. This is why they’re often called non-contact sensors.

Thermocouple 

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A thermocouple is an electrical device consisting of two dissimilar electrical conductors forming

Photo Sensor

Like proximity sensor photo sensor is a non-contact type sensor that detects the presence of an
object. This sensor detects any object but proximity sensor detects metals.

Water Level Sensor

Water level sensor is a sensor used to control the level of water in the water thank, which is used
for cooling. It has high and low level sensor. Low level sensor send message to fill the thank
when the water is low, while the high level sensor is used to stop the filling of water when the
thank is full.

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