Having a large air receiver in your compressed air system is always a good thing — in fact, if the tank does not surprise visitors to your compressor room with its size, it is probably not big enough. Storage receivers slow down pressure fluctuations and allow your compressors to better control the system pressure while […]

By Ron Marshall A grain processor was experiencing random dew point alarms on its air dryer.  An air auditor called to investigate viewed the compressor room header piping and found an immediate problem. The piping installer had connected the discharge of each of their three compressors to the bottom of the compressor room header — […]

One of the best ways to save compressed air system energy is to reduce the load on the compressor by fixing leaks.  The table shown at right calculates the approximate cost of leaks by orifice size for a typical 100 psi system. The average compressed air system wastes about 15% to 30% of all the […]

If you have an oil-lubricated air compressor, you should consider the environmental considerations of your condensate disposal. All lubricated compressors have oil carryover, and when the compressed air produced by the compression element is cooled in the aftercooler, some condensate forms. And floating on top of this water is a film of compressor lubricant. Past […]

When you are looking to buy a compressor, remember that numbers matter. Most people just look at the sticker price when comparing brands of compressors, and often choose the lowest cost. They will also look at the compressed air flow output rating and tend to like the models with the highest output per nominal horsepower. […]

If you’re like most people, you monitor or calculate your gas mileage for your car in order to make sure it is running efficiently. This same thing can be done for an air compressor or even a complete air compressor system. For most compressed air systems running around 100 psi, the specific power in kilowatts […]

It’s possible to use compressed air storage like a bank account to ride out deficits in compressed air capacity that might ordinarily cause the plant pressure to fall to unacceptable levels. Consider the pressure/amp profile shown at the right. The compressed air demand exceeds the capacity of the compressor on two occasions causing the compressor […]

The lowly condensate drain is incredibly important to the quality of the compressed air in a system. The most important ones are those located in the air compressors at the bottom of the water separators, and the next most critical within a refrigerated air dryer. Without these drains, the water squeezed out of the compressed […]

While contemplating compressed air problems over a pizza lunch, an air auditor started doing some quick calculations concerning the size of his pie and the relative cost. He found he could get a 6-in. pizza for 5 dollars but if he went with an 8-in. size, he would only have to pay 7 dollars. Using […]

By Ron Marshall In any manufacturing plant, there is an assortment of blowing nozzles where compressed air is used to clean product or debris. In fact, sometimes it seems like there is a never ending list of ways compressed air can be used for blowing. Some of these ways are classed as safe and others […]