• EcoBell3 atomizers for exterior and direct charging are convincing with their minimal color change loss and short color change times. The atomizer plays an essential role in today's painting process. The EcoBell3 offers many advantages and alternatives and not least, it makes significant contributions in dealing with energy and resources efficiently.
  
  
• The new swing arm robot EcoRP L153 provides accessibility for small and large car bodies on a production line, thus increasing flexibility. At the exhibition, the robot is integrated into a fully-automatic station for interior and exterior painting in a painting zone (box concept).  The reduction of the zone length and a more flexible production are essential features of this concept.
  
  
• The continuous development and improvement of the application technology products guarantee the highest quality, greatest flexibility and profitability during painting. In the future, the painting robot from Dürr will be available with a uniform robotic arm for all applications. The second generation of the color changer EcoLCC scores points with a new skid positioning system with servo drive and weight reduction through new valve technology. The robot control EcoRPC with a new generation of controllers saves up to 30% more energy and has a uniform bus system for motion and process with Sercos 3.
  
  
• The seam sealant applicator EcoGun Sealing IDS with integrated dosing system reduces complexity and increases dynamics. The EcoGun Sealing IDS reduces material consumption with high dosing accuracy, improves seam quality through highly dynamic brush changing, and reduces maintenance effort through reduced complexity and high durability.
  
  
• For all gluing requirements in the body-in-white and final assembly, Dürr offers advanced technologies and products. For example, during gluing in body shell construction, the required amount of glue is reduced by up to 30% with the new, patented, electrically controlled applicator. At the same time, the availability of the system increases, and the cycle time is reduced by higher robot speeds.
  
  
• Dürr is showing solutions for coating and gluing rotor blades in the wind power industry for the first time at this open house. The company uses its automation know-how from its traditional business areas in this field. The automated application of adhesives and paint in rotor blade manufacturing increases quality and process reliability together with less material consumption. Additional advantages include saving time by overlapping processes during activation, cleaning, painting and drying, as well as greater durability through reliable manufacturing processes.
  
  
• For systems and automation Dürr presents the compact, modular paint booth concept, EcoReBooth. This is based on the proven EcoDryScrubber technology for dry separation of paint overspray, which saves 60% of the energy required in the paint booth. New with EcoReBooth is the integrated, powerful ventilation system located within the cabin cross-section, making the system highly compact. Other benefits include rapid installation through construction with pre-assembled modules, and the fact that all maintenance-related components are situated on one level. The flexible cabin width should also be highlighted, as it is individually adaptable to the customer's setting. This newly designed paint booth reduces the space required, the complexity, the number of filter modules, as well as the consumption of media – and thus ultimately the costs.
  
  
• Dürr offers a new perspective for sustainable painting with alternative concepts for the production of industrial process heating. Dürr utilizes solar energy for the  Eco⊕Paintshop, which reduces energy and material consumption as well as emissions. Low maintenance and compact Fresnel collectors are used, which concentrate sunlight and thus function very efficiently. While conventional collectors produce process heat of only 80° C, Dürr achieves temperatures of up to 400° C with these high-performance collectors. This way Dürr can heat ovens whose operation requires temperatures up to 220° C. This pioneering step of energy independence is topped off with the use of combined heat and power. With it electricity is produced via a low-emission combustion process in a micro gas turbine, whose waste heat is used to heat the oven. Both technologies result in significantly lower CO₂ emissions and conserve non-renewable energy sources.
  
  
• Dürr also supports the introduction of new drive and mobility concepts with innovative automation solutions. For their customer, Better Place, Dürr has manufactured automatic battery exchange stations for electric cars for Better Place, as part of the company’s expanding global network footprint. The first systems are being installed and a framework agreement has been concluded for supplying additional equipment. It's a simple concept: You need not tediously charge a battery that is running low, but instead completely automatically exchange it at a changing station. This takes no more time to complete than a visit to the gas station.
  
  
• As a specialist in vehicle assembly with know-how in gluing, testing and filling technology, as well as in automation, Dürr is optimally positioned to supply assembly lines for complete drive batteries in electric cars. This expertise will also be demonstrated to customers at the eighth Dürr Open House.

¹⁾ Q1 2011 has been adjusted due to reclassification of the interest component in pension provisions.

Cases have occurred in which companies have spent millions of dollars to legitimately, and in popular opinion, effectively solve the odor problem - only to be at the mercy of the public that suspects a phantom odor, perhaps due to being exposed to such for so long.
This danger of variability makes it incumbent on the industrial facility that the issue be solved effectively on the first attempt.  Piecing together a solution by papering over it will inevitably lead to recurrence.  Further complaints, bad press, and monetary fines are likely to result.

Because of tighter budgets annually for most companies, the piecemeal approach often occurs due to the tendency to find the lowest cost option instead of the most effective one.  Initial capital investments into solutions that are prematurely low inevitably fail due to either inadequacy or subsequent crippling costs of ongoing operation in the form of consumables or parts replacement.
The informed owner would do well to consider both the spectrum of available solutions as well as their documented history in solving the odor problem in a similar application.

Most common technologies for industrial odor problems include:
• Carbon or other sorbent filtration
• Maskants or perfumes
• Tall stack dilution / dispersion
• Chemical or bio scrubbing
• Biofiltration
• Regenerative thermal oxidation

Of these options, thermal oxidation has often proven to be most effective, particularly from the very beginning of operation – there is no need to add consumables, or adjust chemistries.  Destroying odors with high temperatures is rarely a question of effectiveness.  Use of high temperatures –typically in excess of 1500 F – in a thermal oxidizer proves effective.  It also proves a slightly more expensive option to operate compared to less effective odor control systems, unless the RTO is designed with maximum possible heat recovery to minimize use of purchased fuel to operate.  The typical argument against using thermal oxidation has come with costs of ownership.  However, because of new advancements in equipment, a prudent purchasing agent can find the perfect balance of cost efficiency and effectiveness with the right thermal oxidation technology.

Ongoing maintenance costs can dim initial positive experiences of performance.  The main culprit is the valve sealing system that  RTOs all employ to direct air from chamber to chamber, to take advantage of ceramic heat exchanger beds for maximum fuel efficiency.  The more of these flow reversal valves on an RTO, the greater the chance for odor leakage as well as maintenance upkeep and cost.

About fifteen years ago RTO technology was revolutionized by the introduction of the rotary diverter valve design.  This single, heavy duty diverter replaces the multiple valves and actuators found on typical RTOs.  The result is fewer moving parts, less wear and tear, and considerably less downtime and maintenance costs.

Even better, the single rotary diverter valve on these RTOs never truly opens or closes by “making” a seat or seal – the diverter indexes across an open air path and methodically seals it off by reaching the next set position.  A continuous air purge captures any scavenging dirty air in the switch and returns it for treatment in the RTO.  This operation results in near-zero leakage of odor or dirty air, and allows rotary RTOs to routinely remove odor to below threshold detection levels in most cases.

Installation of these systems is greatly simplified by pre-engineered, skid-mounted design that reduces site assembly time and cost.  Nearly all electrical wiring and piping is completed on the unit prior to arriving on site, where just a few utility connections are required.

For the purpose of illustrating the effectiveness of regenerative thermal oxidizers, specifically those with rotary valve technology in controlling odor from an industrial facility, the following case study from a pet food manufacturer in California will be presented. 

When the pet food manufacturer opened its production plant in California, the company began receiving complaints from residents and neighbors that lived near the facility because of an increasingly worsening odor that was being emitted from their process exhaust. Complaints began coming in at a rapid pace.  Threats of fines and sanctions from local government agencies were real possibilities.

Recognizing the need to control the emissions coming from their facility and the desire to remedy this unfortunate issue with their neighbors, the company invested nearly $4,000,000 to solve the issue.  Despite the investment in some of the above listed odor control systems, specifically carbon canisters for adsorption and tall stack dilution, the company hired the Environmental and Energy Systems business unit of Dürr Systems, located in Plymouth, Michigan, to hopefully and completely solve their odor control issues.  Dürr’s past experience with not only food manufacturing applications, but specifically with pet food manufacturing, uniquely positioned them into providing an effective and cost efficient solution for this issue.

Dürr’s solution was installing their Ecopure® RL single rotary valve regenerative thermal oxidizer at the end of each of the pet food manufacturer’s new process stream ducts.  The confidence in this system, specifically the zero leakage single valve technology, allowed Dürr to offer a series of guarantees concerning odor reduction that came along with the purchase of these systems.  If these guarantees were not met, Dürr would be contractually liable for creating a new solution at their own expense.    While concerns about the cost of thermal oxidation technology to control their odor issue were discussed initially, Dürr designed a system to maximize fuel efficiency, specifically with the use of a proprietary heat exchange ceramic media block internally installed within the RTO.   For even more specific applications, the use of secondary heat recovery equipment can be seamlessly integrated at the end of the RTO to capture wasted energy to be used in other parts of the customer’s facility

As soon as the RL RTO system was commissioned and started for process, people from the plant and surrounding neighborhoods began noticing an immediate and dramatic difference.  Not only was there an increased reduction, most importantly, there was no longer any odor at all coming from the plant.  The complaints stopped and the threat of fines was eliminated.  The systems have been in use since 2008 and there have been no reports of system downtime.

The goal in odor control is to effectively eliminate the problem.  If the system process can not be changed, the use of odor control equipment will need to be instituted.  While initial capital and system maintenance costs for regenerative thermal oxidizers may be more than other methods, the use of RTOs, specifically single rotary valve technology, to eliminate odor is clearly above all others.

Dürr is a mechanical and plant engineering group that holds leading positions in the world market in its areas of operation. It generates a good 80% of its sales in business with the automotive industry. It furthermore supplies the aircraft, machinery, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries with innovative production and environmental technology. The Dürr Group operates in the market with four divisions. The Paint and Assembly Systems division plans and builds paint shops and final assembly plants, especially for the automobile industry. Application Technology provides automated paint application with their robot technologies. Machinery and systems from the Measuring and Process Systems division are used in engine and transmission manufacturing and in final vehicle assembly, among other areas. The fourth division, Clean Technology Systems, is focused on processes to improve energy efficiency and on exhaust air purification. Dürr has 49 business locations in 22 countries. The Group achieved sales of € 1.9 billion with approximately 6,800 employees in 2011.

Contact:
Dürr Systems Inc.
Environmental and Energy Systems
Jim Stone
Sales and Proposals
Tel.:  +1 (630) 248-6693
E-mail:  james.stone@durrusa.com