INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS and mounting of equipment, including compressor units, oil separators, condensing fan units, and suction accumulators. This took me well into the second day of the competition to finish.
Once the plant was fully built, it was time to pressure test the unit. Unfortunately, mine had a leak— in the smallest, most difficult spot on the whole plant to work on, too! As soon as all the pressure was evacuated from the unit, I fixed the leak and pressure tested again. No leaks!
I put my system on a vacuum and started doing all the electrics on the unit: the solenoid coils, electronic thermostats, compressor, fans, and so on. Once done, we had to perform a dry electrical test with an expert evaluating it to make sure all electrical wiring is correct according to the wiring diagram.
Once my system reached the required 200-micron vacuum, I broke the vacuum and started up the system. At this point, I was running around like a headless chicken, setting up the thermostats, capacity valve, and TEV to prevent liquid from flooding back to the compressor. Without realising, I had overcharged the system and had to recover some refrigerant into an empty recovery cylinder to get my pressure running better. As I was adjusting the TEV, my time ran out and I was forced to stop, only to realise that I had closed the TEV too much and barely any cooling was taking place. At least I had some hot water from the heat recovery coil.
1-5: THE DRAWINGS THE COMPETITORS HAD TO WORK FROM AT THE COMPETITION IN ABU DHABI 1 2
3 4
5
DAY 3 OF THE COMPETITION
This day was all about air-conditioner fault finding and repair. We were given an electrical fault to look for and repair on the system. Within the first five minutes, I noticed that a wire had not been connected to the compressor’ s starting capacitor, but I thought it too easy to be the fault and continued searching. I stripped the evaporator, checked the PC board, all supplies, and all the wiring connections. Eventually, I just tried to switch it on with the remote, and after setting down the‘ set temperature’, the unit started running.
Now it was to look for a piping fault. They had made a kink in the suction line of the unit. We had to recover the refrigerant, cut out the damaged pipe, fabricate a new piece, braze it in, vacuum the system, and charge it up again with the correct charge. I finished just in time to have a two-minute sit down to catch my breath before the final whistle blew.
The past three days had flown right by. All the hours of focus and sweat— all over. The competition had put a level of stress on me that I had never experienced in my life but even so, it was still one of the best experiences of my life.
Once we packed up our workstations and cleaned up, it was time for a group photo and a whole lot of handshakes and goodbyes.
Time to celebrate!
SIGHTSEEING AND CLOSING
The next day we woke up early, exhausted from the night before. We got ready to do some sightseeing, ending up taking a taxi
Tyrone Bunce
There was time for some sightseeing in Abu Dhabi and to experience the local culture.
to the world-famous Ferrari World, host of the fastest rollercoaster in the world. So, I decided my first rollercoaster ride ever to be the fastest.
We spent most of the day browsing around and going on rides before returning to the hotel to prepare for the closing ceremony. Once again, everybody joined in song on the bus and filled the bus with life.
At the closing ceremony, there were some speeches and thanks to go around before commencing with the awards.
Once all the awards were handed out, they had the traditional pass of the WorldSkills flag, this time going to Russia, who will be hosting the next WorldSkills in 2019.
We all moved to the after party they had organised for us to celebrate the
Tyrone Bunce hard at work on his project.
COLD LINK AFRICA • March | April 2018 www. coldlinkafrica. co. za 21
OTTC end of another successful competition. Of course, alcohol was only allowed to be served to those over 21, so I was very happy to have had my birthday in June.
THE LAST DAY
On our final day in the Middle East, the South African competitors all decided to go to Dubai to visit the famous Dubai Mall. We stopped at the bus station in Dubai