A leader in the food processing industry located in Idaho Falls (USA), Intermountain Packing faced a critical challenge: in just two years, 28 transcritical CO2 compressors had failures, compromising the operation of their medium temperature chambers. The financial and operational impact was high, demanding a deep analysis of the system.

The investigation involved three players in the industry: Hillphoenix, Bitzer US, and Full Gauge Controls. While Bitzer and Hillphoenix were evaluating the compressors and the mechanical parts, Full Gauge was invited to analyze the quality of the electric supply in the area, a suspect in the failure frequency.

Using MultiPower coupled with Sitrad, the Full Gauge technical team in Brazil can remotely monitor the facility in the United States. This global connectivity offered transparency and real-time support, allowing differentiation from simple monitoring to an actually managed system.

Thanks to Full Gauge instruments, it was possible to identify:
• Voltage peaks reaching 655 Vac in one of the phases;
• Current imbalance of up to 47%;
• Irregularities in the power supply from local suppliers;
• Maintenance issues that generate mechanical failures in the compressors;
• Wrong settings in the system, arising from the client’s prior experience with ammonia, which behaves differently from transcritical CO2.

The joint analysis from Full Gauge, Bitzer, and Hillphoenix enabled failure correction, stabilized the operation, and mitigated risks. Over a year after implementation, Sitrad remains active, issuing daily reports and ensuring complete traceability. Since then, there have been no new reports of compressor failure, providing peace of mind and efficiency in Intermountain’s production process.