Industrial Utility Efficiency

Pressure

High-Altitude Mining and Steel Production in Peru

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Before CAGI data sheets were created, air compressor distributors and their customers could only go by the manufacturers’ claims. He found there wasn’t any uniformity to the numbers manufacturers put out, so making comparisons was challenging. Some compressed air manufacturers measured capacity from the bare airend, while others measured from the air compressor’s outlet.

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Thought Leaders on System Optimization Past & Future

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

We asked a hand-selected list of original equipment manufacturers, independent compressed air system sales and service companies, manufacturing plants and independent system auditors to share their thoughts, highlighting the changes they’ve seen over the past 20 years, then predicting what the next 20 years will bring.
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Compressed Air Pressure Loss Solutions for the Last 30 Feet

By Carlo Gatti, Product Manager, Prevost

The significance of material quality used within air compressor rooms and main distribution networks has been increasingly recognized, leading to advancements in energy conservation. However, this focus on material enhancements has not always translated to the last 30 feet of the compressed air system, an area notorious for its loss in efficiency. Here, 30 to 40% of a compressed air system's total energy losses can occur.
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Sizing Air Compressors for Spray Finishing

By Shane Vrankin, Service Consultant, C.H. Reed

Achieving a high-quality finish on a coated product, whether it’s painted or powder coated, is dependent on a variety of variables that impact coating quality before material ever comes out of a spray gun. For example, it’s essential to have the proper paint agitators, paint pumps, spray guns, hoses, line sizes and pump cycle rates. But an even bigger requirement is a properly sized compressed air system to effectively operate the pneumatic painting and powder coating equipment. 
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Optimizing Positive Displacement Air Compressors for Energy Efficiency

By Andrew Smith-Carrier, Founder, SMARTCAir

This article explores the importance of understanding the key system parameters driving the overall efficiency of positive displacement air compressor systems. We will also review two case studies to illustrate how low-tech, low-cost system improvements can lead to significant energy savings and performance improvements.
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Plastics Plant Audit Improves VSD Air Compressor Arrangement

By Ron Marshall, Chief Auditor, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Estimates based on the captured data show 567,000 kWh costing \$23,375 per year, while feeding an average of 240 cfm to the plant. Estimated savings for upgrading the VSD air compressor to higher efficiency and higher capacity, converting failing desiccant compressed air dryers to cycling refrigerated compressed air dryers and reducing wasted demand total \$9,160 per year, resulting in 39% lower energy use. 
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Compressed Air Audit Uncovers Waste at a Plywood Plant

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

A comprehensive compressed air assessment was conducted at a Canadian plywood facility. The purpose was to determine the proper size of any new air compressors and to look for ways to improve the system. Analysis of the data and a demand-side audit finds significant energy savings could be gained if the system is upgraded through air compressor replacements and demand-side reductions.
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Compressed Air System Optimized at Cheese Packaging Plant

By Hank Van Ormer, Technical Director, APenergy

This assessment identifies a path to reduce the energy consumption from \$85,000 to \$51,000 per year. This can be done with little capital by fixing poppet-valve control problems on the air compressors and reducing flow and pressure requirements. Due to article space limitations, this article does not provide detail on the flow reduction projects. It focuses only on the impact these projects have on the air compressors and provides readers with a template on the information they should have on their units, by shift.
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When Three Air Compressors Are Better Than One (or Two)

By Derrick Taylor, PneuTech 

During Dealer Week, they needed enough compressed air to power multiple machines at a time all day long. Keeping simultaneous demos running for all their top machines required airflow of up to 400 cubic feet per minute (CFM). However, outside of Dealer Week, their compressed air demands were quite modest. On a typical day, they only needed 20 CFM to power their dust collection system and pneumatic tools for their dock and warehouse crating areas. 
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What is CFM in Compressed Air? How Much Do I Have? How Much Do I Need?

By Hank van Ormer, Technical Director, AP Energy

Do the questions in the title seem like simple questions? There are many things that confuse the issue including air compressor condition, controls as applied, interconnecting pipe size and configuration and effective storage. All of these have been covered in many technical compressed air papers and articles. The topic many don’t use or understand is how to calculate the actual value of these initial questions at the operating sites and conditions.   
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