Industrial Utility Efficiency

Instrumentation

Pressure Dew Point Monitoring: The Key to ISO 8573-1 Compliance

By Simon Gleissner, Managing Director, SUTO iTEC

The ISO 8573-1 standard defines clear limits for various compressed air quality parameters. This helps users classify their systems consistently, compare results across applications and set the right requirements for specific processes. This article explains the key points of the ISO 8573 standard and guides you through the correct way to measure and classify pressure dew point for compliance.

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Aluminum Plant Meters Compressed Air Flow to Solve Capacity Issues

By Jack Sine

A major Midwestern aluminum plant was experiencing dwindling compressed air capacity, primarily due to air leaks. If those capacity issues went unresolved, the facility would have needed rental compressors to keep up with demand. Instead, they turned to flow metering to identify and fix the leaks. In this article, they share their solutions with others who may be having similar difficulties.
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Flow Metering Demand-Side Projects in Large Compressed Air Systems

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

As a reader of this journal, you are well aware that large compressed air systems often have significant wasted air — often from leaks — that represent tens of thousands of dollars of waste per year. However, it is our experience that the so-called “low-cost” measures identified often go un-repaired, while other more costly capital projects get funded. Why? With an ROI of a half year or less, they seem like IQ tests to many compressed air auditors.
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Taking Control of Compressed Air Pressure

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

“Jurassic Park,” Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel about a theme park full of genetically engineered dinosaurs, circles around one central theme — control. In fact, there are literally nine chapters titled “Control,” and most of those chapters follow the brilliant, chain-smoking systems engineer John Arnold as he ravenously tries to restore the control systems after a catastrophic collapse.
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Determining the Economic Value of Compressed Air Measurement Systems

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

A common adage that has been quoted many times in this journal is: “If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” This is partly true. It assumes that managers are willing and able to manage the costs and reliability of their compressed air system. Without data, however, they can’t do an effective job. But because managers are at times already overwhelmed with data, more data doesn’t automatically make them a better manager. A better way of saying it is: “Appropriate measurement can make you a better manager.”
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Go with the Flow: How Flow Meters Can Help Improve Plant Efficiency

By Scott A. Williams, Contributing Editor

Plug an electrical device into an outlet. Does it work? Great! For some people that’s all that matters. When it comes to compressed air, many manufacturing plants operate the same way. As long as there is enough air, that’s all that matters. But what if cost control also matters to your company? Smart compressed air users may already know how much air they’re producing, but they also want to know how much air they’re using—and whether they’re using it productively. To find out, they’re taking accurate, real-time measurements using flow meters.  
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Formaldehyde Monitoring in the Poultry Industry

By Nancy Aulisa, ENMET

Formaldehyde is an organic compound that can adopt several different forms. It can be used in solution form as formalin, as a free gas, or in a solid form as paraformaldehyde prills. Formaldehyde is highly toxic to humans, regardless of the method of intake. At room temperature it is a colorless gas characterized by a pungent odor. Even with very short-term exposure, formaldehyde will cause irritation to the eyes including pain, redness, blurred vision followed by sneezing, soreness, coughing, shortness of breath, headaches and nausea. Exposure to elevated levels can lead to accumulation of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema).
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Harris Equipment Helps Food Companies Attain SQF Certification

By Neal Lorenzi

SQF is a food safety management company that conducts audits and reports its findings on companies that voluntarily subscribe to its services. Once an audit is performed, SQF releases the data; from this data, other companies can determine who they want to use for packaging and manufacturing. To facilitate the process, SQF has released a guide that provides directives for processes used in manufacturing.
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Visualizing Compressed Air Flow at VPInstruments

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine.

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Pascal van Putten (CEO) of  VPInstruments.  -- We founded VP Instruments, in 1999, with the mission being to apply our experience with flow sensor technology to compressed air and gas flow applications in laboratories with a “one size fits all applications” concept. We did some trade shows and sold one unit during the first year – a tough start. So we hired a consultant who helped us re-package the technology completely. This led us to launch the VPFlowMate, in 2002, in a small and easy to use package. The company has taken off since then.
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6 Reasons to Log Your Compressed Air System

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

The compressed air system in most industrial and commercial facilities is vital to production machinery and processes. When it goes down so does the plant output. This important utility is often one of the most costly energy consumers in a facility. Yet most compressed air system operators have little knowledge of how their compressed air system is performing and, if problems have happened, do not have an accurate record of what went wrong.
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Comparison of the Compressed Air Microbial Testing Unit to a Standard Method of Bioaerosol Sampling

By Lynne Landsborough Ph.D.

Compressed air is used in a number of processes in the food industry. It is used as an ingredient in whipped products such as ice cream, to slice or cut soft products and to open packages before filling of product. Currently, food manufacturers are under pressure to validate the safety of all ingredients or processes for regulatory compliance, but unfortunately, there is currently no standard method to evaluate the microbial content of compressed air.
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