GRE were contracted by a blue chip sports broadcaster, to design and manufacture 5, air-portable, 130kW (at rated condition) air conditioning units, for the company’s mobile broadcasting suite and data centre.
The unique constraints of the project took the scope far away from what was/is commercially available, which meant a totally bespoke solution.
With the requirement to be both air portable (the space claim was set around a air freight pallet) and for the units to withstand vibrations and impacts based on DEF STAN 00-35 for wheeled vehicles, the units needed to be tightly packaged, as light as possible, but extremely robust. Further to these requirements, the design also needed to be flexible enough to ensure consistent performance in particularly arid, dusty or humid locations, such as Qatar, Abu-Dhabi and Singapore. Finally, due to their ‘mission-critical’ importance, the units had to have a high level of built-in redundancy.
GRE design engineers first developed a unique concept that suspended the air conditioning units on a lightweight welded frame within an exoskeleton, using primary and secondary anti-vibration mounts and movement restrictors. Vibration analysis was modelled using computer simulation prior to manufacture and verified upon completion, with a suite of vibration and impact tests that were carried out by the TUV test facility in Fareham, UK.
The refrigeration systems for each unit comprised four separate (fully redundant) cooling circuits (with inverter-driven compressors, evaporator and condenser fans), coupled to custom-designed evaporator and condenser coils, set into bespoke plenums. The systems also incorporated redundant ‘mains in’ supplies, UPS on control electronics and remote conditioning monitoring.
GRE also undertook environmental testing along with a full, witnessed, factory acceptance test. We also provided on site technical support when the units were first deployed, along with a long-term maintenance programme.
All design, analysis, mechanical fabrication/assembly, electrical design/assembly, software and testing was done in-house, by GRE.
