It is common to see reverse pulse filters applied to any process that creates dust in an industrial plant. Collecting the dust is sometimes part of the industrial process, or it could be applied for pollution control, preventing the dust from contaminating the neighborhood. Within these dust collectors are an array of filter elements, sometimes […]
Air Preparation
What are some clues to compressed air leaks?
Sometimes you don’t need an expensive leak detector to find leaks. There are often clues scattered around the facilities that show you where costly compressed air is escaping from your system. Consider an automotive manufacturer where a variety of common leaks were found during a recent compressed air audit: Various leaking regulators were found […]
Five supply side improvements for compressed air systems
By Ron Marshall Here are five common ways to improve your compressed air system efficiency and save electrical costs: Choose an efficient compressor — Air compressors have come a long way over the years, with many design improvements implemented. Chances are that a new compressor will be more efficient than your old unit, and if […]
Compressed air fail: Poor maintenance disaster
A food products company used lubricated screw compressors to produce its compressed air for the plant. Due to tight budgets, the plant maintenance manager decided to stretch the maintenance intervals on the compressors as long as he could, but this led to unexpected disaster. Within each lubricated screw compressor is an oil separator filter. This […]
Take the compressed air systems approach
By Ron Marshall One key recommendation of the Compressed Air Challenge’s Fundamentals of Compressed Air Systems training is to take the systems approach. Improving a compressed air system is much more than just looking at just replacing an air compressor. Sometimes system problems are caused by a variety of things. When looking at system improvement […]
Compressed air fail: Dryer spitting ice?
By Ron Marshall Recently, a reader wrote in with this question … I’m the sole maintenance technician for a distribution facility. We have a compressed air system that involves two reciprocating compressors (20 years old), alternated in use every three months, with the other kept in reserve for emergency backup. Both are connected to a […]
Compressed air fail: Why dry to -40°?
A manufacturer of industrial coatings used a heatless desiccant air dryer to process and condition the compressed air for their complete production process. This 1,500 cfm dryer consumed about 225 cfm of compressed air for its purge flow, which costs about $40,000 per year in equivalent electrical costs, and further had a 10 psi pressure […]
How can you achieve cylinder flow reduction?
Looking for ways to further reduce your compressed air demand? Consider investigating air cylinder actuation. Often times, air cylinders in production machinery only require significant force during a single power stroke, but still use full line pressure to return the cylinder to resting position. Let’s compare the air consumption for double acting versus a spring […]
Keep an eye on blowing costs
Blowing with compressed air is costly, due to the poor conversion efficiency between electrical energy and compressed air power. Typically for any mechanical operation, it costs about 10 times more to use compressed air to move something — even more if that something is only minute particle, such as dust and wood chips. It is […]
Compressed air fail: Blowoff
A mine had a large 10,000-cfm air compressor installed to feed underground operations. Busy in its heyday, the mine operations had been reduced substantially, and the compressed air demand was on average 3,300 cfm. Unfortunately, even with the reduction in flow over the years, the electrical demand of the air compressor did not drop off […]