A wood products company hired a compressed air auditor to check out its system and try to discover why it now needed to run three compressors rather than the normal two units that previously satisfied the plant demand. The auditor placed instruments on their system to measure pressure, power, temperature, and flow — and quickly […]
VMAC welcomes new Director of Engineering
VMAC has announced that Jamie McPherson is the company’s new Director of Engineering. An accomplished leader with experience in industrial manufacturing and design engineering, McPherson will lead VMAC’s vertically integrated product development department, which includes a foundry, custom machine shop, and mechanical, electrical, and software engineering teams. “Jamie’s proven leadership and dedication to continuous improvement […]
Compressed air fail: Breathing air purifier
A metal process plant has two breathing air purifiers installed on site for the protection of its personnel. These units are installed to ensure hazardous Carbon Monoxide is kept out of breathing air. Recently, the two systems were evaluated by a compressed air auditor. When paint fumes or metal particles are in the ambient air […]
Should wet compressed air receiver tanks be outdoors?
During plant inspections, it is often noticed that compressed air receiver tanks are installed outdoors. This is done for a reason — and is a good idea, in many cases, because it benefits the operation of air drying and filtering equipment and produces better quality compressed air when hot summer days cause worst-case conditions. Here […]
Compressed air fail: Remote cooler install
A wood products company called in a compressed air auditor to have a look at its compressed air system. System reliability was poor, and the staff was having issues with the main compressor, a 200-hp air cooled screw compressor that carried most of the plant load. This compressor was rated at 100 psi, but recently […]
Compressed air fail: Vacuum pick-up
A metal products manufacturer had a production problem in one of its processing areas. The maintenance staff had increased the discharge pressure on their air compressors to help with the issue, but it seemed the problem would come back occasionally with no warning. Fig. 1 shows the problematic item, a vacuum pick-up crane. When the […]
How can you spot wasted compressed air?
In a noisy industrial expensive plant, air leaks are everywhere, but hard to detect because the ambient roar washes out the sound of air leaving your system. But strange as it may seem, sometimes you can see compressed air leaks, or more accurately, you can see the result of the air escaping! Fig. 1 […]
Compressed air fail: Nozzles check
By Ron Marshall A metal parts company had dozens of media blasters installed in its production areas to clean its products for final processing. These blast cabinets were in constant use throughout their 16-hour production day and consumed a significant part of the peak compressed air demands. The staff found that they were running out […]
Why does my compressed air quality go down in summer?
Are you spending your summer struggling with the quality of your compressed air, with stinky, rusty water pouring out of your pipes? When it comes to air quality, the hot summer months are the most challenging time for most compressed air systems, and to avoid problems, you need to plan for the worst-case scenario. Typically, […]
Compressed air fail: You forgot one thing
A meat processing company air upgraded its compressed air system to increase capacity and reduce energy consumption. They installed large, premium efficiency VSD compressors, a smart compressor controller, efficient filters, large storage, and heated blower desiccant dryers connected with oversized compressor room piping — all in an effort to reduce pressure loss. The maintenance workers […]