Any time you’re considering a new purchase your return on investment is a critical aspect of the decision-making process. A recent case for me this past year was the purchase of a new riding lawn mower. What used to take me 2-hours to mow my entire yard, now only takes 45 minutes. Mowing 1 time per week throughout the growing season, I was able to save over an hour of my time each week! Considering that I’ll mow the lawn approximately 25 times per year, that’s more than a full day’s worth of time saved over the course of a year.
Some products, however, provide a monetary value due to reduced operating costs. For example, an LED light bulb may cost more initially but will use less energy to operate as well as have a longer lifespan than an incandescent bulb. You can calculate, down to the day, when you’ll recoup the costs difference from buying the more expensive bulb.
The same can be said for EXAIR’s Intelligent Compressed Air Products. An extrusion company had a line where they were using (3) modular-hose style flat nozzles. (1) was placed just before a water bath to remove some of the initial heat, (2) were then placed as the material exited the bath to dry the material after it was cooled. While they did work, they had begun to notice pressure drops in their compressed air system that was causing issues for other processes in the facility.
The (3) nozzles were all operated at 50 PSIG consuming 17 SCFM per nozzle for a total consumption of 51 SCFM. They were operated for one full 8-hour shift, 5 days per week.
51 SCFM x 60 mins x 8-hours = 24,480 SCF/day
Since they had a range of different sizes of material they process with the widest up to 2.5”, we recommended replacing the modular style hose flat nozzles with EXAIR’s 3” Super Air Knife. At a pressure of 50 PSIG, (3) Model 110003 Super Air Knives consumes just 17.1 SCFM.
17.1 SCFM x 60 mins x 8-hours = 8,208 SCF/day
By implementing the Super Air Knife, they reduced their compressed air consumption for this particular application by 66.4%!! But, just how quickly will that air savings provide them with a return on their investment? Let’s calculate the savings:
The average cost for compressed air is $0.25/1000 SCF. Before the installation of the Super Air Knives, the total consumption was 24,480 SCF/day.
24,480 SCF x $0.25/1000 SCF = $6.12/ day
With the Super Air Knives, this was reduced to just 8,208 SCF/ day:
8,208 SCF x $0.25/1000 SCF = $2.05/ day
Total Savings – $4.07 each day!!!
The 2019 list price on the Model 110003 is $206.00. Since they bought (3) their total investment was $618.00.
$618.00/$4.07 = 151.84 (152 days)
On the 152nd day, the customer will have saved enough money from the reduced air consumption to account for the initial purchase price of the Super Air Knives. Once they’re paid for, it isn’t like you just stop saving money. These knives will continue to save money, each shift, day in and day out. If there’s a process in your facility that you can improve upon, give us a call. We’re also able to test it out here at EXAIR and report back to you on the savings through our free Efficiency Lab!
Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD