Emergency Chiller Replacement – Airbus UK, Broughton

The Challenge

At 02:10am, TDC's 24-hour support team received an emergency call reporting the failure of a critical production chiller at Airbus UK Broughton. With manufacturing operations dependent on the system, a rapid response was essential to prevent costly downtime.

Our Response

Engineers were on site by 03:04am and quickly identified the cause: the compressor had suffered a mechanical seizure and the condenser coil had ruptured, with both requiring several days for a full repair. To avoid production downtime, the team immediately began contingency measures. A temporary chiller was sourced from TDC's in-house hire fleet, delivered to site by 09:00am, and installed and commissioned by a team of three specialist chiller engineers.

The Result

Less than eight hours after the initial call, the temporary chiller was fully operational, allowing production to resume without further disruption. Once replacement components were sourced, the permanent chiller was repaired and returned to service within around two weeks, with all temporary equipment safely removed from site. TDC maintains its own stock of temporary air conditioning and refrigeration equipment and runs a 24-hour nationwide call-out service, so cover like this is available whenever a critical system fails.