customer focus
Precision achieves preferred –
supplier status with Heidelberg
IMI Precision Engineering’s team in
Continental Europe has reached a
major milestone by attaining preferred
supplier status for Heidelberg, one
of the world’s leading suppliers of
sheet-fed litho and digital printing
equipment and services.
WRITTEN BY
Jörg Heller
Key Account Manager, Continental Europe
IMI Precision Engineering
We’ve worked hard to satisfy all
the requirements of Heidelberg’s rigorous
certification requirements, ensuring our
products are of the required quality, at
the right price with excellent delivery
performance. Our competitors were keen
to win this business so the pressure’s
been on from the start and we’ve really
delivered. We supply Heidelberg with over
200 different products including valves,
special actuators, regulators and
air manifolds and our Fellbach team
co-ordinates deliveries from Precision
factories across Continental Europe.
IMI Precision Engineering worked
closely with Heidelberg to build
relationships and ensure issues were
resolved quickly and permanently. Huge
strides were made in product quality with
continuous improvement and lean making
important contributions.
A cross-functional team, coupled to
excellent collaboration between the many
development and production sites was a
key feature in delivering the results, and
regular reviews on how we can improve
our team-work make for a GREAT team
performance.
Heidelberg’s new flagship Speedmaster CD102 litho press
IMI Critical Engineering is helping
to optimise performance and output
at one of South America’s largest
power plants.
The Mejillones facility, located on the
Chilean coast in the country’s Antofagasta
region, has produced power from a
combination of coal, diesel oil and natural
gas since 1995, with an annual output of
around 3 million megawatts. The
Mejillones facility provides power to a
number of mining facilities in the region,
where unscheduled stoppages are
expensive and highly undesirable.
At Mejillones, some of the installed
competitor valves were suffering
from erosion, cavitation, flashing, and
unanticipated shutdowns, with the most
critical valves being the worst affected.
The facility owner E-CL, a major
player in the Chilean energy sector,
WRITTEN BY
Warren Ferguson
Director of Business Development, Americas, IMI CCI
IMI Critical Engineering
IMI CCI has the power in Chile
approached Critical’s IMI CCI business
for a solution. Having assessed
the application requirements, we
recommended the complete replacement
of the valve.
The solution recommended was
IMI CCI’s patented DRAG
®
technology
which is proven in effectively controlling
the velocity of fluids, avoiding leakage,
cavitation and flashing, protecting the
pump and optimising plant efficiency.
The customer adopted this solution
based on these advantages and the fact
that IMI CCI already had a significant
and proven installed base of valves
at Mejillones.
Since installation, unanticipated
shutdowns resulting from valves have
been eliminated, whilst the level of control
during start-up has exceeded customer
expectations.
Juan Pablo Villamil of IMI CCI
commented:
“This is a major facility where
valves in key applications were suffering
the effects of age and poor operating
conditions, resulting in high levels of
downtime. The incorporation of control
and recirculation valves featuring patented
DRAG
®
technology was the obvious
solution and has proven highly effective
in resolving these issues and delivering
uninterrupted processing.”
A spokesman for E-CL added:
“The IMI CCI valves are delivering precise
control during both start-up and normal
processing, drastically reducing the
likelihood of stoppages and minimising the
possibility of damage to pumps, drums
and other systems components.”
The IMI Newsletter
Issue 4
16
