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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MGM Industries Reduces Chilled Water Requirements with Dry Vacuum Pumps

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed John MacKorrell (Extrusion Process Engineer, MGM Industries) and Dave Brittain, Steve Gilliam, and Wayne Kemp from Becker Pumps.

Two years ago, sales were picking up and we began operating six extrusion lines on most days. We had to bring in some portable chillers, to keep up, and we started looking at buying a larger cooling system. We wanted to get rid of the portable chillers and have room to grow into four more extrusion lines. The new system we looked at was a 100-ton system that would have cost us around \$150,000 in capital and installation and with a larger monthly electricity bill. We were about to buy the new 100-ton chiller when our President, Abe Gaskins said, “Hold-on, can we replace the Liquid Ring pumps with something that doesn’t consume water”? That was our “Eureka!” moment.

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Improve Pneumatic Performance Through Filtration System Design

By Scott Minato, Marketing Manager – Air Preparation Products, and Barbara Pontisso, Filtration Products Specialist, Numatics, Inc.

In an ideal world, industrial air or gas supply lines would be free of particulate, water, oil and other contaminants. In the real world, however, supply lines typically deliver some contaminants along with the air or gas they were designed to carry. Left unchecked, these contaminants will cause efficiency losses, maintenance headaches and the premature failure of pneumatic components.

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Sustainable Productivity at Atlas Copco

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

The story of Atlas Copco’s 140-year commitment to innovation. When thinking about innovation during the past century, the mind immediately wanders to consumer-facing brands that make products that are experienced by users – like a mobile computer and videophone that fits in our hands or the technology applications through which almost all modern business is conducted.

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Screw Blowers and Membrane Bioreactor Treat Wastewater at a Bottling Plant

By Richard Stukey

The right ingredients and processes are essential for manufacturing flavorful beverages that contribute to the company’s bottom line. But what happens to all those other “ingredients” that aren’t part of the recipe? Cleaning up those unwanted ingredients from bottling plant wastewater can consume large amounts energy, time and money—and become a distraction from the company’s primary goal of manufacturing beverages.

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Transitioning to Oil-Free Compressed Air

By Todd Stelzer, strategic account manager, Ingersoll Rand.

Compressed air quality is measured by the amount of solid particulates, water and oil content in one cubic foot (cu. ft.) of compressed air. Many of these contaminants are introduced from the air surrounding the installation site that is drawn into the system at the beginning of the compression process. The relative humidity, type of compressor and air treatment and filtration system can also affect air quality. Minimum air quality requirements vary by industrial application; the most stringent standards apply to manufacturers whose end products, packaging or critical instrumentation come in direct contact with compressed air.

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Handling Corrugated Cardboard with Optimized Pressure-Regulation of Air-Driven Vacuum Pumps

By Josef Karbassi, Division Manager Automation, PIAB AB

Using suction cups and air-driven vacuum pumps is a preferable gripping and handling method of corrugated cardboard materials and boxes in carton-machines like case/carton erectors and rotary cartoners. Robot based applications, like palletizing and de-palletizing, are other examples where the best practice technology for gripping and handling is by suction cups and air-driven vacuum pumps.

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The Evolution of Biomass Compressors

By Robert A. Sturdy, CLS

When the Environmental Protection Agency was formed, in1970, it used its congressional mandate to issue all sorts of regulations regarding the discharge of contaminants into the land, water and air of this country. Over the years, air pollution has been one of the key areas where the Agency has put in place stringent requirements to control the emission of VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds. Today the mandates of this government agency require extensive steps be taken to curtail their release by all operators of tank farms, chemical plants, refineries, fermentation plants and landfill operations. As a result of these regulations the Bio-Mass utilization industry was born.

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Pneumatech® Biogas Dryers and ConservAir® Flow Controllers

By Richard Stukey

Energy efficiency and sustainability solutions are often associated with more obvious initiatives--such as installing compact fluorescent bulbs—but those solutions fail to dig deeper for the “hidden gems” that can have a much greater impact. For manufacturing and building engineers or anyone else dealing with high potential energy consumption and inrush current demands, compressed air systems are one of the first places to look for significant energy savings and greater sustainability.

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Applying Variable Speed Compressors in Multiple Applications - Application Success Stories and Improvement Stories

By Neil A. Mehltretter, System Design Manager, Kaeser Compressors, Inc.

Variable speed control for all types of industrial equipment is now readily available on the market with competitive pricing to non-variable speed controlled alternatives, including in the air compressor industry. With the advent of prescriptive rebate programs for variable speed compressors and other equipment, the demand for these types of controls has increased. General wisdom would recommend a variable speed compressor for all applications, or multiple variable speed compressors within each system.

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Improved Aeration Efficiency through Design and Control

By Matthew Gray, Senior Process Engineer and Steve Kestel, Lead Systems Engineer, BioChem Technology, Inc.

With the recent and future increases of the cost of energy, operating a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) as efficiently as possible has become one of the most important factors that operators and managers are facing today. The implementation of a properly designed aeration control system has been reported by the United Sates Environmental Protection Agency to reduce aeration energy by 25 to 40 percent.

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