Pressure profiles and flowrates of a compressed air system are essential parts in understanding and maintaining an industrial compressed air system. Understanding what the pressure is coming out of the compressor, what it is in your header system, and then down into the drops of your machines and points of use are all beneficial to building an efficient compressed air system. Of course, this will take some monitoring.

In a perfect system, the compressor outlet pressure and the point of use line pressure will be the same. Due to factors such as friction loss, unregulated demands (leaks), and inefficient pipe sizing, it is difficult to produce in a real life scenario. This results in a pressure drop across the compressed air system, a decline in pressure from the compressor outlet to the end use devices. Understanding the full pressure and flow layout of a system can be used to zero in on artificial demand on the system which is a result of a leaks or inefficient use of compressed air.

The Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters provide the ability to see both the flow on a pipe as well as the operating pressure. When coupled with other items such as our Wireless Communication network they can easily be setup to generate alerts to operators as well. This would look like a message stating that operating pressure has dropped and that would result in the operator halting production to determine the cause. While a production halt is less than desirable, a crashed machine or loss of clamping a part due to pressure drop can be worse.

By using the Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters you will be able to build a pressure profile throughout your system. This can all build back into an efficient compressed air system by tying directly into the information gathered for the overall system.

For instance, If a compressor set point is 90 psig, and at the point of use you are seeing 70 psig, you have a 20 psig drop in piping, fittings and/or artificial demand. If the operator needs 80 psig to maintain their process then that means someone will want to bump the compressor set point to 100 psig to compensate. First off, that pressure drop should never be present in a system as it is excessive. Second, if this is a positive displacement compressor then for every 2 psig added, the compressor itself will increase by 1% of energy demand from the drives.

If you would like to dig into your system and start building a pressure/flow profile to start off your path to an optimized system, please contact an Application Engineer.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF