Transformers for industrial applications
Setting standards in reliability and cost efficiency
Tailor-made and designed to withstand the harshest conditions, Siemens Energy high-current industrial application (HCIA) transformers provide power for steel manufacturing, electrolysis, mining and offshore oil and gas platforms, in which current itself is a major resource. Find out how you can specify your transformer to enhance your system stability while saving costs at the same time.
Heavy-duty powerhouses that withstand harshest ambient conditions
As a leading supplier for over six decades, Siemens Energy not only brings more than 100 years of experience in transformer technology to its industrial transformers, but a production and service network that spans the planet. Our global network keeps response times short, ensures just-in-time delivery, and gives you the same extensive know-how and the same technology and quality wherever you are. Furnace transformers as well as heavy-duty rectifier and converter transformers connect industries to the power grid. Their purpose is to supply a critical resource to energy-intensive industrial applications – high currents with very specific voltages. These transformers must meet rigorous requirements. Siemens Energy's expertise in design and precise manufacturing ensures customers to enjoy top performance and efficiency in terms of both cost and energy. At the same time, units need to be extremely reliable in operation and environmentally sound while affording the highest level of safety for those working in their vicinity.
- Technology & Design
- Quality & Standards
- Digitalization
- Replacement
Rich customization options and unique designs
Siemens Energy translates individual customer requirements into unique premium-quality HCIA transformers with a reputation for superior reliability and an impressive service life. Siemens Energy has developed a wide range of design options to ensure its tailor-made HCIA transformers cover all customer use cases.
Specifications for voltage, power rating, ambient climate, network topography, cyclic load and additional current harmonics are typical HCIA transformer criteria.
Further design options include:
- Cooling and extreme-heat protection
- Oil-directed cooling designs for high power densities in small installation places
- Defined earthing and electrical grounding to avoid loop currents
- Direct or indirect voltage regulation
- On-load or off-load tap changer
- Saturable reactors (transducers) – rugged technical designs for fine voltage regulation between two or three regulated voltage step of on-load tap changer
- Compensated lead connection designs to decrease magnetic fields
- Shielding designs to decrease the effects of high magnetic fields
- Monitoring
Siemens Energy established the Center of Competence in Dresden, Germany for driving innovations in HCIA transformers. As a result, Siemens Energy transformers benefit from design breakthroughs. This ensures cutting-edge technology across the entire HCIA transformer portfolio.
What makes HCIA transformers from Siemens Energy stand out in the market, is the superior performance density they bring to especially compact and lightweight designs.
Exceeding highest quality standards
Siemens Energy HCIA transformers exceed highest quality standards and comply to all relevant laws and regulations.
The factory acceptance test, which Siemens Energy transformers undergo fully assembled in Siemens Energy's own test bays, includes standard quality tests and special tests specified by the customer.
- ISO 9001, 14001 for certified plants
- The certification according ISO 29001, a standard important for customers in the oil and gas industry, is a unique advantage of the Siemens Energy transformer production site in Dresden.
- IEC 60076-1 for power transformers
- IEC 61378-1 for converter transformers and as an additional standard for transformers for industrial applications
- IEEE Std C57.12 is a standard for general requirements for liquid-immersed distribution, power, and regulating transformers
- IEEE Std C57.17 describes the electrical characteristics and mechanical requirements for arc furnace transformers. This is a standard relevant to customers located in the US.
Increase transformer reliability
The impact of transformer outages on the process industries in which they are used can be severe because outage costs may not be limited to the cost of transformer repairs. In industrial applications, an outage may result in standstills and a total loss of production. An effective way to minimize this risk is the continuous monitoring of key parameters during transformer operation.
Therefore, HCIA transformers from Siemens Energy are produced as Sensformers per default. This means they are equipped with sensors, that are transmitting operational status data to a secure storage and analytics tool. Operators can optimze operations based on customized data analytics and minimize outage times.
Remanufacturing transformer originals
When a transformer reaches the end of its lifecycle, it needs to be replaced to maintain the operation. Although there are ways to fast-track replacements, ordering, designing, building and even delivering a replacement transformer generally requires careful planning well ahead of its installation. Siemens Energy experts work closely with customers to reliably remanufacture HCIA transformer originals. Customer can choose a 1:1 replica or opt for a new transformer that fits into the existing vault or chamber but offers greater power if requested by the customer.
In steelworks especially, the notoriously small transformer chambers set challenging limits for capacity expansion. Thanks to extensive expertise in cooling designs and in handling high magnetic fields, Siemens Energy is able to offer higher power density with much smaller real estate requirements than the competition.
Top performance for all industrial environments
Siemens Energy transformers are leveraged in very different environments, from mining to oil and gas extraction, from steel plants to chemical industries. Each area of application requires specific transformer designs to supply the right kind of power for very specific projects in very specific environments. Their especially rugged designs withstand exposure to dirt, gases, short circuit forces, and high magnetic fields. Our transformers, built for industrial applications, deliver extended voltage regulation ranges. They can provide extremely high currents and have the capacity to feed multi-pulse rectifier units to ensure low system perturbation. This allows them to withstand cyclic load and high thermal stress while remaining highly reliable. In addition, furnace transformers withstand frequent overcurrent and overvoltage caused by short circuits in the furnace or by tripped high-voltage circuit breakers.
Furnaces Transformers: Enormous currents in harsh ambient conditions
Some industrial conditions require exceptionally robust and reliable transformers to ensure they work cost-efficiently in a harsh ambience. Siemens Energy electric arc furnaces (EAF) are built to operate under very harsh conditions, such as steel or ferro-alloy furnaces. Available for DC and AC furnaces, they provide high currents of up to 200kA.
Heavy-Duty Rectifiers: Uninterrupted power supply for electrolysis and smelting
High current electrolysis processes need transformers, which supply energy with maximum reliability, to ensure stable production. Siemens Energy's rectifier transformers are used for electrical multi-pulse DC power supply to induce a chemical reaction, for example in zinc electrolysis or aluminum smelter. Available connection types include bridge and double-star (with or without interphase reactor) design.
Converter Transformers: Maximum flexibility for large-drive applications
Large-drive industrial applications rely on transformers, which offer flexible voltage adaption to meet the drive input voltage. Converter transformers from Siemens Energy are tailor-made for specific applications in harsh environments. They supply power for large-drive multi-pulse applications and variable electrical speed drives, such as blast furnaces, pump stations or rolling stock in mining applications.
Powering industries
Siemens Energy designs and builds a wide range of tailor-made high-current electric arc furnaces, rectifiers, and converter transformers for applications in process industries where power is a key resource.
- Electric Arc Furnace Transformers
- Heavy-Duty Rectifiers
- Converter Transformers
Transformers for melting processes
Designed to withstand the exceedingly severe conditions accompanying metallurgical steel processes in
- Foundries,
- Secondary steelmaking,
- Ferroalloy production.
- Ratings up to 300 MVA
- Secondary voltage up to 2 kV
- Electrode current for steel up to 120 kA
- Electrode current for ferroalloy up to 180 kA
- Direct or indirect regulation or booster
- On-load or off-load tap changer
- Oil- or vacuum-type OLTC, also reactor-type OLTC
- Series reactor (built-in or separate) for long arc stability
- Air- or water-cooled secondary bushing arrangements and designs
- Internal secondary phase closure (internal closed delta)
- Special magnetic shield designs – a Siemens specialty
- OF- or OD-cooling
Transformers for electrolysis and smelting
Used for
- Industrial processes, which require a significant direct current (DC) supply. Typical areas of application are aluminum electrolysis or smelting operations.
- High secondary currents, together with the harmonic currents generated by the rectification systems.
- Applications with heavy duty semiconductors as diodes or thyristors.
- Ratings up to 150 MVA (≤ 300 kA)
- Secondary voltage 2 kV to nearly 0 V depending on the application
- Direct or indirect voltage regulation
- Double-star or bridge connection
- Double-tier design and/or keel line arrangement
- Double-tier with or without intermediate yoke
- On-load or off-load tap changer
- Filter connection or filter winding
- Additional phase-shifting windings for 12-pulse or higher pulse systems
- Interphase reactor, saturable reactors (transductors)
- Air-cooled secondary bushing arrangements and designs
- Numerous different vector groups and phase shifts
Power transformers for large-drive industrial applications
- Supply the input for variable-speed drives, e.g. for large-scale industrial drives, pump stations, rolling stock in mining applications, or blast furnaces.
- Allow multi-pulse (up to 36) rectifier operation.
- Ratings up to 200 MVA
- Secondary voltage between 800 V - 36 kV, depending on the drive
- Additional winding to filter harmonics
- Combination with a frequency converter
- Double-tier or multiple-tier design
- On-load or off-load tap changer
- Filter winding and/or earth screen
- Various vector groups and phase shifts
- Variable-speed drive design
- ATEX certification
- Operation in harsh environment
- Alternative insulation liquids
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