Techport pilot plant permanent part of Tata Steel courses
The Fieldlab Smart Maintenance, Techport's innovative pilot plant, has become a permanent part of the Tata Steel Academy's education program. The Fieldlab houses the most advanced equipment where tests are conducted for sustainable and smart maintenance. By teaching students in the Fieldlab, students learn to work with the most innovative equipment and come into contact with the latest technologies.
Fieldlab Smart Maintenance is a pilot plant for smart maintenance. This pilot plant is located next to Tata Steel's Academy. "Companies can do trials here for improving their maintenance. For example, we recently received the Navy for vibration measurements. For students at our school, the trials themselves are less interesting. But the frequency-controlled pumps that are in the field lab, those are interesting," says Albert-Jan Butter, Process Technology Training Coach at Tata Steel's Academy.
Albert-Jan: "At the Academy we have pumps with control valves that students are taught with. This while controlling pumps with a variable speed drive is the future. You can regulate this pump much more efficiently and ultimately this is a lot cheaper and more sustainable. At Tata Steel we are also going to be using these new pumps more and more. I expect that eventually the control valves will disappear altogether. In collaboration with Techport, we have now created teaching materials on this latest configuration. This is how we prepare our students for the latest technologies." The new teaching material is a broadening of the existing material. "With the new material, students learn about the operation of electrical engineering (frequency controlled processes), the saving of energy and they learn a completely different form of startup."
