System Assessments

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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Arkansas Industrial Machinery Helps TIGG Reduce Energy Costs

By Kevin Conley, Arkansas Industrial Machinery

TIGG Corporation, a manufacturer of activated carbon adsorption vessels, custom air receivers and other steel tanks and pressure vessels, substantially reduced its energy costs after implementing equipment, labor consolidation and procedural changes resulting from a compressed air energy audit. The audit was performed at TIGG's 155,000 square feet manufacturing facility in Heber Springs, Arkansas to determine the efficiency of the existing compressed air system and to set a baseline for TIGG's participation in Entergy Arkansas’ Large C&I Custom Incentive Program.

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Your Air Compressor May Be Smarter Than You Think

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Not long ago most air compressors were controlled with mechanical pressures switches, relays and gauges. The setup of these units, especially when attempting to coordinate multiple compressors could be a frustrating and fruitless experience because often, no sooner than the controls were correctly adjusted, some sort of mechanical gremlin would throw something out of adjustment again.

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Machine Builders Optimize Pneumatic Circuit Tubing Volumes

By Jon Jensen, John Martin and Chris Latham, SMC USA

The advent of manifold mounted, plug-in pneumatic valves has been a boon for machine builders. It allows them to mount complete valve packages in a safe and secure location on a machine. Using a D-sub connector, serial interface module, or similar single-point wiring system, all of the electrical control outputs can feed into one location on the manifold, greatly simplifying the wiring. Plumbing issues are reduced, since a single air pressure line can be used to feed a common pressure gallery. The same advantage applies to the common exhaust gallery. No longer would both a plumber and an electrician be required to replace a valve, since any valve can be replaced without disturbing electrical connections or plumbing lines.

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Precise Air Gauging in Metal Fabrication and Machining Centers

By Chris Koehn, President, Stotz USA

Air gauging relies on a law of physics that states flow and pressure are directly proportionate to clearance and react inversely to each other. As clearance increases, air flow also increases and air pressure decreases portionately. As clearance decreases, air flow also decreases and air pressure increases.

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Compressed Air Optimization at CertainTeed Gypsum

By Ron Marshall for Compressed Air Challenge®

The CertainTeed Gypsum Board plant located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has renewed their compressed air system and improved their air quality, as a result of information learned at Compressed Air Challenge’s Fundamentals of Compressed Air seminar, some wise choices for new equipment, and thorough investigation of their system. A close look at their distribution system uncovered some surprising results that, once changed, resulted in better system operation. The improvements saved significant operating costs and resulted in a financial incentive from their power utility.

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Air System Pressure Influences Compressor Power - Part 3: The Influence of System Pressure on Compressed Air Demand

This is the third article in a three-part compressed air series by Mark Krisa, Director – Global Services Solutions, Ingersoll Rand

Energy conservation measures (ECM) associated with compressed air have received a significant amount of attention over the years, mostly due to a reasonably short financial return compared with other energy consuming equipment. Over time many of the corrective actions put forward to reduce compressed air energy consumption have been simplified with the goal of encouraging action. Although this is done with the best of intentions, sometimes simplifications and generalizations do not necessarily lead to positive results. One of the most common energy conservation measures for compressed air that leverages best practice calculations involves reducing system pressure. It is the objective of this series of articles to highlight some of the more common issues associated with estimating energy conservation resulting from changing system pressure.

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Reviewing Compressed Air Demand at a Food Processor

By James G. McAuley P.E.

This article reviews portions of an audit report of a compressed air system in a food industry factory located in the U.S. Although the audit explored different supply-side options the client should consider to improve dynamic efficiency, we will focus on the demand side of the system for this article.

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5 Compressed Air Demand-Reduction Projects at the Brewery

By Don van Ormer, Air Power USA

This brewery is a relatively large operation with nine production lines plus a keg line. There are five bottle lines and four can lines. Operations in the plant include palletizing de-palletizing, filling, packaging operations, and brewing. Annual plant electric costs for compressed air production, as operating today, are \$693,161 per year. If the electric costs of \$43,016 per year associated with operating ancillary equipment such as the blower purge dryers are included, the total electric costs for operating the air system are \$736,177 per year. These estimates are based upon a blended electric rate of \$0.06 /kWh.

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Packaging Printer Ink Dryer Audit Optimizes Low-Pressure System

By Ron Marshall for Compressed Air Challenge®

Compressed air audits are valuable exercises on significant energy users in a plant. Often done on main compressed air systems, these studies are also valuable on secondary systems, like dedicated low pressure circuits that feed production machinery. An audit of such a system turned up some surprising results on a process that was initially thought to be very efficient.

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Air System Pressure Influences Compressor Power - Part 2: The Influence of System Pressure on Centrifugal Compressors

This is the second article in a three-part compressed air series by Mark Krisa, Director – Global Services Solutions, Ingersoll Rand

It is common to see energy assessment specialists treat centrifugal compressors like positive displacement compressors when attempting to reduce compressed air system energy consumption. Unfortunately, centrifugal compressors are normally much larger, and miscalculations can easily represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in overestimated energy savings. These errors are not malicious; they result from oversimplified best practices perpetuated by individuals with limited centrifugal compressor knowledge. This type of knowledge is not readily available and most energy assessment specialists do not have access to engineering teams responsible for the technical development and design of centrifugal compressors.

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