Technology

Safe Compressed Air Drying Systems for Class I, Division 1 Environments

By Jess Elley, Product Marketing Manager, Suburban Manufacturing Group – Tsunami Compressed Air Solutions

Learn how engineers can safely remove moisture from compressed air systems in hazardous environments by eliminating ignition risks through pneumatic controls. This article explores design considerations, performance characteristics and reliability factors for regenerative desiccant dryers operating in Class I, Division 1 locations.

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SHOW REPORT: The 2019 Best Practices EXPO & Conference – Another Success!

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

The event brought together technology experts, systems assessment professionals, and manufacturing leaders – all of whom shared best practices and ideas manufacturing plants can use to save energy, improve sustainability initiatives and increase the overall reliability and quality of on-site utilities.

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Keep Contaminants Out of Food and Beverage Processing Air Supplies

By Brandon Brownlee, Motion Industries

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 30,000 food and beverage processing plants across the United States employ more than 1.5 million workers.1 Each of those plants applies a wide range of processes to raw agricultural goods to produce consumable food and beverage products.

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Standardization of Automation Components Pays Off at New Biotest AG Plasma Fractionation Plant

By Ralf Baumann

Blood plasma is an indispensable resource in the production of life-saving medicines. It is also in high demand on global markets. To make more efficient use of this valuable commodity, Biotest AG developed a new large-scale production plant in Dreieich, Germany, for plasma fractionation capable of obtaining five instead of the previous three products from a single liter of blood plasma. As part of its strategy, Biotest AG worked with Festo to standardize automation components used at the plant, resulting in simplified installation and maintenance.

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Understanding and Treating an Industrial Static Problem

By Daniel Rebennack, SMC

In this article, we discuss problems associated with static electricity in industrial manufacturing operations and how to effectively address them. At the atomic level, materials have a balance of positively charged protons in the nucleus and negatively charged electrons in the shell. Balance requires the same number of each. A static charge occurs when that balance shifts due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons from the atom or molecule. The primary mechanism for this loss or gain, among several possibilities, is friction.

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Show Report: 2019 AEE World Energy Conference and Expo

By Compressed Air Best Practices®

The 2019 AEE World Energy Conference and Expo was held September 25-27 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. The event featured 14+ tracks, 56 sessions, over 260 individual speakers, and 62 exhibitors. Both Chiller & Cooling Best Practices and Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazines were pleased to be in the literature bins at the 2019 AEE World!

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How to Keep Reverse Pulse Dust Collectors Operating Efficiently and Reliably

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Reverse pulse type dust collectors often represent a challenge to compressed air energy efficiency, and sometimes throw a wrench into the works by causing huge air pressure fluctuations, high transient flows and just plain large leaks. This article discusses this type of dust collector, often installed in food processing plants, and gives some real-life examples of problematic installations. Some suggested measures are mentioned to ensure your dust collectors keep running in a trouble-free manner.

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Integration: Should Compressed Air Monitoring Be Combined with Control?

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

Maintenance is the customer of controls and energy engineering is the customer of monitoring. And I discussed potential problems that can occur when combining monitoring and control in the same system. In this article, I will get more specific about building practical systems that address both controls and monitoring.

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Reliability: Should Compressed Air Monitoring be Combined with Control?

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

Many OEMs of air compressors, dryers, sensors and master controls are integrating monitoring features and capabilities into their components. It would seem a no-brainer to keep it simple and use those sensors and systems for both control and monitoring. What could be simpler?

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Control Strategies for Efficiently Operating Multiple VFD Air Compressors

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

By far the most important development in the world of screw type air compressors has been the introduction of variable speed control using electronic variable frequency drives (VFD’s). Systems that run with at least one air compressor at part load can almost always operate more efficiently if a well-controlled VFD is added to the system. But what if a system has two or more VFD units? This article discusses the challenges in controlling multiple VFD air compressors with some suggested solutions.

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The Hydraulic Air Compressor: An Old Idea Made New

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

The team is building on engineering concepts that were used to develop the first hydraulic air compressor at Dominion Cotton Mills, Magog, Quebec, Canada, over 100 years ago. The basic principles of the HAC were then used to produce compressed air at 17 locations worldwide, including the last at Ragged Chutes near Cobalt, Ontario, Canada, over 100 years ago. This article discusses the development the HAC in this decade and the continuing work at Laurentian University, Ontario, to modernize the concept.

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