Seamless operation of air conditioning maintained by RMS specialists
We have already suffered tropical days in the second half of June, and meteorologists say further heatwaves are about to come. Air conditioning helps all of us to survive hot days at work. U. S. Steel Košice has more than 3500 air-conditioning units located in offices and operations alike. They are a must, especially in the hot operations, and our colleagues there use them all year round.
Seamless operation of air conditioning is maintained by specialists from our subsidiary company RMS, a. s. Košice, led by Ladislav Merkovský Operations Manager Electrical Maintainance. They surely cannot complain of lack of work in these hot days as air conditioning operates at full power. “Only today (Friday, June 24, editor’s note) we received fifty air-conditioning failure notifications before 10 a.m. We must hurry, there are only a few of us and there are plenty of units. So selection is important. We deal with the most acute cases first,” says Radoslav Vašiga, Foreman. He says that air-conditioning units work hard, especially those located in operations. Dust, various kinds of dirt and high abient temperatures damage them despite their being relatively reliable, says the air-conditioning specialist, who has worked with them for more than 12 years. "The moment the central control system indicates failure, our breakdown service sets out. If possible, they try to repair the failure immediately. In the case of a larger failure, repairs must be planned,” he says, describing procedures.
In this area, our colleague from RMS has submitted several projects connected with the Carnegie Way transformation. One of them relates to air-conditioning units located on cranes. “The project includes our own repairs of air-conditioning compressors. Supplies and repairs were previously delivered by an external company. We have learnt to repair them by ourselves, and compressor repairs and spare parts are supplied by one reliable supplier from Germany.” U. S. Steel Košice has 140 crane air-conditioning units. The worst conditions are in hot operations such as the coking plant, hot rolling mill, blast furnaces and steel shops. For illustration, crane air-conditioning units in the Steel Plants are constructed to operate at 90 degrees Celsius.
A similar Carnegie Way project is being implemented by RMS specialists with Airwell-type industrial air-conditioning units located for example in the main administrative building, electricity distribution points or server rooms. “We also do some repairs of compressors on these, like on the crane air conditioners, but we do other things as well, for example cooling fans. Selecting a spare part of the same quality and lower price allows us to save considerable funds,” says R. Vašiga, explaining the largest benefits of the project.
Every year the RMS specialists prepare for the summer in advance. During the off-season, from October to May, selected strategic air-conditioning units are moved to the workshop for maintenance. They ensure that each device goes through such servicing at least every other year.
