A wire manufacturer used a refrigerated air dryer to condition the air from their three compressors. The dew point required in the plant was near 35° F, and the maintenance staff were confident of the proper operation of the dryer — because the onboard dew point reading on the dryer control panel said that the readings […]

There is a great entertainment value in watching the many movies or reading magazines about superheroes who possess amazing powers, and more than a few of us have wished we could be granted such skills — so we too could save humanity from evil. But this is not far from reality. In the world of […]

Many air compressor operators choose to use timer drains to remove liquid that is captured in separators, traps, receivers and filters in a system. Rather than using gravity feed or a float system, these drains open and expel the liquid, and an amount of compressed air, from the system after a set number of minutes. […]

Dust collectors using reverse pulse compressed air cleaning are often a problem in industrial plants. These dust collectors are usually located on the top of bins that collect dust and debris from industrial processes. A fan blows the contaminated air through a set of filters, in the form of bags or cartridges. The flow of […]

The load on any compressed air system — and the flow that must be produced to maintain pressure — contributes to the cost of operation.  A good strategy to follow in trying to reduce compressed air costs is to examine the end users of the system and determine if they are classed as “appropriate” or […]

A compressor that had reached near the end of its useful life was retained as a spare compressor. The unit sat on standby but rarely ran, except during maintenance periods. Years ago, a compressed air auditor placed thermal mass flow meters on each of the facilities four compressors. The flow on the standby compressor did […]

An important part of any energy efficiency project is verification of the project post installation. Checking out the baseline of the new system and comparing it with the old consumption proves the savings … and gives you the confidence that everything is working okay. The chart shown at right shows a real system with a […]

Duct Tape (also called duck tape) has been around since the 1940s, when it was designed to be easily used to make quick repairs on things (see Wikipedia). Over the years, it seems many strange and wonderful uses have been found for this handy adhesive tape, including its incorrect use on compressed air systems. The […]