Tag: air savings

Week 6 Back to Basics- Control the Pressure

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

If you’ve been following along with this blog miniseries, you know we’ve reached the final step in the Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System. Each step so far has built toward this moment—and today we add the last piece of the puzzle.

The final step is simple but powerful: control the air pressure at the point of use to minimize consumption.

EXAIR offers a range of Pressure Regulators capable of handling air flow of up to 700 SCFM.

This is done by installing one of our pressure regulators, available in multiple pipe sizes and flow capacities. A small change in pressure makes a big impact. For example, reducing operating pressure from 100 PSIG to 80 PSIG lowers energy use by nearly 20%. In many cases, operations can run at even lower pressures, unlocking even greater savings.

This reduction in energy use is also coupled with the fact that pressure regulators make any compressed air-operated tool infinitely adjustable. Not all applications require the full output force or RPM, or conveying rate that can be achieved at full line pressure with a compressed air-operated product. And so the humble pressure regulator enables this ability for energy savings and control that is on par with any electrical control for voltage or even frequency. Pressure regulators also facilitate our working mantra to use the least amount of pressure and volume necessary to accommodate the application objectives.

All of our regulators are standard stock items, which means they can ship the same day if ordered by 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Plus, with 2D and 3D CAD models available through our CAD Library, you can design your entire compressed air system virtually before making a single cut in pipe.

This step, combined with the previous five, gives you a complete roadmap to compressed air optimization. From measuring usage and fixing leaks, to implementing engineered solutions, automating control, using intermediate storage, and now regulating pressure—EXAIR is here to help make the process straightforward and effective.

As always, if you’d like to discuss your application or explore how we can help you optimize your compressed air system, feel free to reach out.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Optimizing Compressed Air: 6th Step – Lower the Pressure!

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

The last step in EXAIR’s Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System centers around air pressure. Unless you’re controlling your air pressure for each individual application, there’s a strong chance you can achieve quite a bit of savings by lowering the air pressure just upstream.

In any application necessitating the use of compressed air, pressure should be controlled to minimize the air consumption at the point of use. Pressure regulators are available to control the air pressure within the system and throttle the appropriate supply of air to any pneumatic device. As the last of the six steps to optimizing your compressed air system, controlling air at the point of use can often be overlooked.

Pressure Regulators “dial in” performance to get the job done without using more air than necessary.

Pressure regulators utilize a control knob that is turned to either increase/decrease tension on a spring. The spring puts a load on the diaphragm which separates internal air pressure from the ambient pressure. Typically made of a flexible rubber material, these diaphragms react very quickly to changes in the air supply. By either increasing or decreasing the flow of air based on the load on the diaphragm, downstream pressure remains fairly constant.

While one advantage of a pressure regulator is certainly maintaining consistent pressure on your compressed air devices, using them to minimize your pressure can result in dramatic savings to your costs of compressed air. As pressure and flow are directly related, lowering the pressure supplied results in less compressed air usage. EXAIR recommends operating your Intelligent Compressed Air Products at the minimum pressure necessary to achieve a successful application. If you notice a desirable result at a pressure of 60 PSIG, or even less, there’s no need to run full line pressure. In-line point of use pressure regulators are the simplest and most reliable way to allow you to dial down the pressure for any compressed air operated product.

When selecting a pressure regulator for your application, it’s critical that it is appropriately sized to supply adequate volume to the point of use devices downstream. Doing so, minimizes the risk of experiencing “droop”. Droop is a decrease in outlet pressure from the specified setting due to an increase in flow rate.  Droop occurs when the demand at the point of use exceeds the volume of air that the regulator can supply. By ensuring the pressure regulator is rated to deliver a sufficient volume of air, you’ll reduce the chances of experiencing droop. EXAIR offers pressure regulators in kits along with many of our products. We’ve done the hard part for you and made sure they’re properly sized!

If you’re looking for ways to help lessen the demand on your compressor, EXAIR’s team of Application Engineers will be happy to help. Reach out to us via phone, chat, or e-mail and see for yourself just how easy it can be to start saving compressed air!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Free ROI Evaluation and Report with EXAIR’s Efficiency Lab Service

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Free Efficiency Lab

With any purchase process, it’s important to consider the return on your investment. This becomes even more important when trying to convince management that the upgrades you’re looking to make on the floor are worth the investment. At EXAIR, we offer a free service that allows you to send in your existing compressed air blowing devices to be compared with our recommended EXAIR manufactured equivalent.

Many facilities may not have the means to test the air consumption of their blowoff solutions. With compressed air being the most expensive utility in a manufacturing facility, it’s important to identify places where you can save money on your overall operating costs. EXAIR manufacturers a wide variety of products intended to help you reduce your compressed air usage. If you’re not able to accurately measure the consumption in your own shop, we invite you to send the products to EXAIR for testing.

All you have to do is contact an EXAIR Application Engineer and ship them straight to our warehouse in Cincinnati, Ohio. Once we receive it, our engineers will complete some in-depth testing to determine the compressed air consumption, sound level, and force that your current solution provides. With this information, we’ll be able to compare it to an EXAIR Engineered solution. This way, we ensure that you receive the best, safest solution possible. All while saving money through reduced air consumption and improved efficiency.  We’ll send you back a comprehensive report that’ll help you to make the best decision for your company.

This service is something that we offer to our customers completely free of charge. This way, you can be assured that by selecting a new solution from EXAIR, you’re making a well-informed decision. Oftentimes, it’s not known just how much some of these products cost to operate. Contrary to popular misconception, compressed air is certainly not free. In fact, it is rather costly, as a 4th utility in an industrial plant.

Check out the Efficiency Lab for yourself here in this video:

If you think there are applications in your facility that you suspect are consuming too much air, we’re here to help. Reach out to an Application Engineer to organize your own, free Efficiency Lab evaluation of your equipment. Allow us to show you the difference!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

EXAIR Calculators

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I went to grade school in the 1970s and really developed a love of mathematics in the fifth grade (1976-1977), spurred on by a wonderful teacher that I actually still am in touch with today. 1977 was also the year that I got my first handheld calculator. It had an LCD display and would perform basic arithmetic, as long as the 9V battery lasted. If I recall, it set me back almost $10, which was what I earned in two Saturday afternoons of helping a neighbor split firewood (I hauled & stacked; he ran the log splitter).

Pretty soon, all the cool kids were getting them, and, while the teachers couldn’t stop us from doing math homework with them, they DID prohibit them in the classroom, and lectured us CONSTANTLY about the need to do – and show – our work on paper, because we were NEVER going to carry a calculator around in our pockets. The classroom calculator ban continued on through high school, but in Naval Nuclear Power School, and then college, the use of calculators was actually mandated…but only after we’d demonstrated proficiency in doing math on paper. That’s a concept I agree with wholeheartedly.

Fast-forward to the 21st century, and it turns out, just about everybody DOES carry a calculator in their pockets…on the same device that has a built-in camera, video recorder, GPS…oh, and us old timers actually make phone calls on it too. You can also use that smartphone to access websites where you might find online calculators that aid in selecting that particular company’s products. As you might have guessed by now, EXAIR is one of those particular companies, and I’m writing this blog today to let you know about our Calculator Library. Depending on what you want to know, we have several that’ll do the math for you:

Air Savings Calculator: Use this one to determine the potential compressed air savings associated with replacing an existing compressed air blowing device with an efficient EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product. There are two to choose from: one in USD, and one in Euros.

EFC Calculator: Not all blowing applications require continuous operation of the blowing device. EXAIR’s EFC Electronic Flow Control is a standalone system that’ll turn the compressed air flow on & off, as needed, so you don’t waste money on compressed air consumption when it’s not doing anything for you. This calculator will tell you how much you can save on compressed air costs, and your return on investment in the EFC. Like the Air Savings Calculator, we have a USD and a Euro version.

Cabinet Cooler System Calculator: Instead of air consumption & dollars (or Euros), our new Cabinet Cooler System Calculator is all about heat loads and cooling capacities. EXAIR has offered the ability to submit Cabinet Cooler Sizing Guide data for a long time – by fax (THAT’S how long it’s been), email, or straight through the website. For the Do-It-Yourselfers out there, we now have this feature for you to submit your data and get an immediate answer as to which Cabinet Cooler System has the cooling capacity to handle the heat load calculated from your data.

For the record, I’ve only chided my 5th grade teacher for her insistence that nobody would ever be carrying calculators around with them all day. It was on a Facebook post – where we were both using smartphones – and we had a good laugh about it. All’s well that ends well. But if you’ve got questions about EXAIR’s calculators, feel free to give me a call. We can even do the math the old-fashioned way if you prefer.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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