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.

Read Full Story

A View From Southeast Asia. A Pharmaceutical System Assessment

By JoGar Energy & Utility Services

We conducted a comprehensive compressed air system assessment. Opportunities to improve the system were found in the main piping system, in reducing pressure losses in the mold machine piping, and with the high ambient temperatures found in the compressor room. We estimated energy savings of 403,500 kWh per year for a power savings of \$65,000 per year. The total projects costs were \$48,000 for a simple ROI of nine (9) months.

[ Read Full Story ]

Three Demand-Side Projects at a Pharmaceutical Plant

By Hank Van Ormer, Air Power USA

This pharmaceutical plant spends \$265,100 annually on energy to operate the compressed air system at their facility. This figure will increase as electric rates are projected to be raised from their current average of 7.7 cents /kWh. The set of projects identified in the compressed air system assessment could reduce these energy costs by \$139,300 per year (52%).

[ Read Full Story ]

A Pharmaceutical Compressed Air System Audit

By SMC USA

This West Coast pharmaceutical facility has a very clean and organized compressed air system. All equipments is in good working order in the compressor room. The compressor room itself is very clean and well ventilated. The management requested a compressed air system audit for two reasons:

[ Read Full Story ]

Compressed Air System Improvements

By Gary Wamsley, JoGar Energy Services

An industrial manufacturing plant (producing commercial water meters and valves) had engaged us to conduct an ‘on-site’ Energy & Utilities Assessment of their facility. The annual ‘spend’ for electricity, natural gas, fuels and water was about \$ 2.0 million.

[ Read Full Story ]

Industrial Sandblasting – Where Does All the Air Go?

By Don van Ormer & Scott van Ormer, Air Power USA

“Sandblasting” is one of the oldest and most used methods of metal treatment. Various abrasive materials may be loaded manually or by a vacuum system pulling the “grit” from a storage tank. A control valve then operates with the compressed air (bypassing the vacuum pump), being forced into the tank pressurizing the receiver. When the high pressure compressed air goes out the discharge line, it pulls the appropriate amount of grit with it to effectively impinge against the targeted metal surface.

[ Read Full Story ]

Dealing with High-Volume Intermittent Demands

by Ron Marshall and Bill Scales for the Compressed Air Challenge®

In many industrial plants there are one or more applications with intermittent demands of relatively high volume. One example is the use of dense phase transport systems to convey the cement. Dense phase systems can cause severe dynamic pressure fluctuations affecting quality of the end product in a plant.

[ Read Full Story ]

Real-World $mart Sequencer® Controls

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices®

The \$mart Sequencer® is an air compressor control system designed to reduce a plant’s energy costs by continuously monitoring system demand and automatically selecting the most energy efficient combination of available air compressors.

[ Read Full Story ]

Compressed Air Controls

Excerpted and submitted by Ron Marshall and Bill Scales for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Compressed air system controls match the compressed air supply with system demand and are one of the most important determinants of overall system energy efficiency. This article discusses both individual compressor control and overall system control of plants with multiple compressors. Proper control is essential to efficient system operation and high performance.

[ Read Full Story ]

Starting a Long Distance Relationship with Your Compressed Air System

By: James Green, Product Marketing Manager and Jay Johnson, Portfolio Manager for Controls & Automation , Ingersoll Rand Industrial Technologies

When was the last time you visited your compressor room? A week ago? Several weeks ago? If you are like many, you went in for the last scheduled maintenance interval and have rarely been back since. Air compressors, dryers and other air system components have become more reliable and self sustaining from a maintenance standpoint with each generation, requiring less and less human intervention.

[ Read Full Story ]

Compressor Sequencer Problems and Solutions

Tim Dugan, P.E., President, Compression Engineering Corporation

The goals of this article are to show why sequencers often have problems, and to demonstrate how avoid problems by proper system integration and controls design.

[ Read Full Story ]