{"id":13922,"date":"2020-01-07T09:57:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T08:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=13922"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:33:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:33:53","slug":"shoprite-relies-on-cooling-with-ebm-papst-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/industries\/refrigeration-ventilation\/shoprite-relies-on-cooling-with-ebm-papst-fans_13922\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh = Quiet with AxiCool"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the outside, the Cilmor Distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion Center (DC) is quite impres\u00adsive. The futur\u00adistic building\u2019s hori\u00adzontal ellipse is nestled in the South African soil, presenting its metal cladding to the sun as if it were a lizard. However, the heat must not pene\u00adtrate into the seem\u00adingly infi\u00adnite rows of high bays on the inside. After all, they house the cheese, juices, meat prod\u00aducts, and other perish\u00adable goods of around 500 suppliers that are waiting to begin their journey to the show\u00adcases of Shoprite and Checkers stores.<\/p>\n

At the highest point of the roof supported by steel beams, the building measures 22 meters and its widest point is 144 by 123 meters. These dimen\u00adsions are gigantic for a reason. With 2,700 stores and 15,000 employees, the Shoprite Group is the largest on the African conti\u00adnent. The Group central\u00adized its distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion chain upon opening the ware\u00adhouse in 2018. This means storing food with a wide range of temper\u00ada\u00adture require\u00adments under one roof.<\/p>\n

Compa\u00adnies that want to cool a facility of its dimen\u00adsions effi\u00adciently and create a pleasant working climate must over\u00adcome tech\u00adnical chal\u00adlenges. (Photo | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

With a goal of this magni\u00adtude, it is not easy to create the ideal climate for all goods. The cooling system must be extremely clever. To achieve this, Cilmor DC is divided into three zones. Two have -28\u2009\u00b0C freezers measuring 4,500 square meters each and the third 12,000 square meter cooling zone holds the temper\u00ada\u00adture at 1 \u00b0C.<\/p>\n

Wanted: econom\u00adical cooling<\/h2>\n

That keeps things fresh. But when so much space is being cooled, noise is inevitable \u2013 resulting in an unpleasant working climate. \u201cNoise!\u201d said Hannes Steyn, Director of GEA Refrig\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion Africa (Pty) Ltd., naming the special chal\u00adlenge for this type of building. GEA is respon\u00adsible for the entire cooling system there. Steyn explained that the highly reflec\u00adtive surfaces and many fans, result in a noise level that makes it unpleasant to work in the facility. Where devices make noise, lots of energy is consumed \u2013 a second hurdle for the model distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion center, consid\u00adering that elec\u00adtricity is scarce and there\u00adfore expen\u00adsive. The region does not have enough high-perfor\u00admance power plants.<\/p>\n

A total of 176 AxiCool fans are attached to the evap\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtors to main\u00adtain the required low temper\u00ada\u00adtures. (Photo | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Compa\u00adnies that want to operate a building with these exte\u00adrior dimen\u00adsions at the required low temper\u00ada\u00adtures with as little energy consump\u00adtion and noise as possible need to estab\u00adlish rigorous criteria for the main sources of noise and elec\u00adtricity consump\u00adtion. Shoprite spec\u00adi\u00adfied the following criteria: The fans for the evap\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtors had to be effi\u00adcient and have a maximum noise level of 48 dB(A) \u2013 no louder than a quiet night in a major city. Their reach had to be at least 28\u2008meters with 100% speed control.<\/p>\n

Plenty of cooling for little energy<\/h2>\n

AxiCool fans from ebm-papst meet all of these require\u00adments. And they go even further, as Steyn said: \u201cWhen it comes to airflow and reach, they exceeded our expec\u00adta\u00adtions.\u201d \u201cThey\u201d are the 176 EC AxiCool fans that generate powerful air circu\u00adla\u00adtion using the heat exchanger surfaces in the evap\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtors (Fig. 3). The AxiCool Fans that ebm-papst devel\u00adoped espe\u00adcially for commer\u00adcial and indus\u00adtrial evap\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtors and air coolers have a reach of up to 63 meters and air perfor\u00admance of up to 24,600 cubic meters per hour. They are ideal for gigantic Cilmor DC.<\/p>\n

AxiCool fans as of size 500 are avail\u00adable in two different versions: as a stan\u00addard version including guide vanes and a fitting guide for the heating tape (left) and as a version with addi\u00adtional fan housing cover to reduce heat transfer to the cold section (right). (Photo | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

In both freezer sections of the Shoprite distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion center, the fixed-speed axial fans in size 800 with 1.5 kW motor ensure a constant temper\u00ada\u00adture below freezing. The reason for the fixed speed in these sections is a simple one. The temper\u00ada\u00adture must be a constant -28 \u00b0C, so the fans must deliver a constant airflow. In the freezing sections, the focus is not on whether the tech\u00adnology is quiet because employees do not work in them for long periods of time. The fans could also easily handle temper\u00ada\u00adtures between -40 and +40 \u00b0C (Fig. 4).<\/p>\n

Energy consump\u00adtion is more impor\u00adtant at the temper\u00ada\u00adtures that must be main\u00adtained there. This would also be a reason for Shoprite to rely on AxiCool. Equipped with guide vanes for improved effi\u00adciency and with the special AxiBlade impeller design, they keep elec\u00adtricity consump\u00adtion low. These impellers are made of resis\u00adtant composite mate\u00adrial. The blade geom\u00adetry featuring a special profile and winglets deliver higher effi\u00adciency than conven\u00adtional blades.<\/p>\n

A further plus when it comes to saving energy: the drive in AxiCool fans. Green\u00adTech EC motors stay cool even at maximum power, meaning that heat transfer in the freezer sections is extremely low. AxiCool can reduce power consump\u00adtion by up to 46 percent. The impeller design, opti\u00admized inlet ring, and intel\u00adli\u00adgent diffuser also ensure that the cooling process is extremely quiet.<\/p>\n

Every single compo\u00adnent contributes to the effi\u00adciency, low noise emis\u00adsion, and clean\u00adli\u00adness of AxiCool fans. (Photo | ebm-papst)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

The advan\u00adtages of AxiCool fans are partic\u00adu\u00adlarly useful in the cooling section of Cilmor DC because many people work there. The required speed in this area is based on the air temper\u00ada\u00adture and requires the infi\u00adnitely vari\u00adable control func\u00adtion. When the required temper\u00ada\u00adture is reached, it decel\u00ader\u00adates. For a gigantic ware\u00adhouse facility that seldom oper\u00adates at full capacity, this trans\u00adlates directly into savings \u2013 of money and energy.<\/p>\n

Smoothly deflect soiling<\/h2>\n

With their quiet oper\u00ada\u00adtion and effi\u00adciency, the fans meet two basic require\u00adments for use in the distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion center. But another attribute is impor\u00adtant where food is being stored: the fans must be clean. Thanks to their optimal distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion of cold air and high splash water protec\u00adtion (IP 54), AxiCool fans comply with the most rigorous hygiene stan\u00addards. The surfaces were consciously designed to be smooth and do not have any visible screws, making another contri\u00adbu\u00adtion to clean\u00adli\u00adness. They make it diffi\u00adcult for soiling to adhere and in case of doubt, are easy to clean. This also saves water.<\/p>\n

Time is another scarce resource that Shoprite has conserved by selecting ebm-papst fans. One reason why GEA Africa was commis\u00adsioned to call for bids from cooling system suppliers was the company\u2019s agree\u00adment to complying with the tight schedule that Shoprite had planned for completing the distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion center. ebm-papst reacted by reor\u00adga\u00adnizing orders and freeing up capacity so it could produce the fans on schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the outside, the Cilmor Distri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion Center (DC) is quite impres\u00adsive. The futur\u00adistic building\u2019s hori\u00adzontal ellipse is nestled in the South African soil, presenting its metal cladding to the sun as if it were a lizard. However, the heat must not pene\u00adtrate into the seem\u00adingly infi\u00adnite rows of high bays on the inside. After all, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[152,144,153],"class_list":["post-13922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fans","category-refrigeration-ventilation","tag-axicool","tag-cooling","tag-produce"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22330,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13922\/revisions\/22330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}