Case: Volter

Volter renewed the design of their power plant product – mechanical design by Relicomp

Volter Oy, a company providing CHP plants, decided to renew the design of their equipment last year.

During spring 2014, engineers at Volter Oy started to feel that the product appearance of their small-scale woodchip-fired power and heat production plants needed renewal. The plants resembling marine containers, mainly designed by engineers, created high transport costs for the company due to their large sizes. Vigorously rising export sales increased the costs even more: in 2014, export sales increased to 80% of the total turnover.

Until last spring, we had been mainly focused on the technology. It was high time to bring the product appearance to the same level with the technology. We contacted Pinto Design and they designed us a new plant look, says Jarno Haapakoski, managing director of Volter Oy.

Since the newly designed plant included several sheet metal components that required special tools, Volter started to look for a competent sheet metal workshop. During this search, Haapakoski heard about Relicomp Oy, a company based in Kurikka, Finland.

Last summer, at the end of our very first meeting, we started the mechanical engineering design together with Relicomp. Based on draft drawings and main dimensions, Relicomp designed the sheet metal components, while Volter was responsible for devising the plant frame that supports the main components of the plant, Haapakoski explains.

Volter received the final frame drawings and cover plate fixing plans from Relicomp.

Relicomp is now responsible for the plant production. It was good that Relicomp also designed the plant since they had a good understanding of the scope of production that is reasonable using in-house machines.

The first power plant was completed in October 2014. The production of power plants has started successfully and Volter now aims to focus on it.

On the whole, the project was successful. The new design was implemented in a short time and no compromising was necessary regarding the manufacture of the newly designed plant. Everything went smoothly from the plant design to manufacture, Haapakoski summarises.

According to Mika Sorri, sales manager at Relicomp, the product excellently reflects the company’s competence and offering – from engineering design and product development to the final surface-finished sheet metal product. The product manufacture combines the traditional sheet metal technology and numerically controlled incremental forming.

[By the media house] Organisaatio-Sanomat, Niina Heikkinen