Tag: compressed air control

Control Air Pressure at the Point of Use with EXAIR’s Pressure Regulators

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

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. To help you achieve this, EXAIR offers a line of point of use pressure regulators to make sure you’re operating at the optimal pressure for your application.

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.

Regulator Internal

While one advantage of a pressure regulator is certainly maintaining consistent pressure to 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 to any compressed air operated product. For example, a Model 110012 Super Air Knife will consume 42 SCFM when operated at 100 PSIG. When the pressure is reduced to 60 PSIG, this drops to just 27.6 SCFM. That’s a 34% reduction in compressed air usage, just by dialing down the pressure at the point of use!

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

Finding & Fixing Leaks: The Benefits of Creating a Leak Detection Program

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Leaks in a compressed air system can be a substantial source of wasted energy. A facility that hasn’t maintained their compressed air system will likely have a leak rate around 20-30% of the total air production.  But with a leak detection plan you can reduce air leaks to less than 10% of the compressor output.

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Along with the energy waste, leaks will contribute to higher operating cost.  Leaks cause a drop in system pressure, which can make air tools operate poorly, harming production cost and time. In addition, by forcing the equipment to cycle more often, leaks shorten the life of almost all system equipment, including the compressor. Increased running time can also lead to added maintenance and increased downtime. Finally, leaks can lead to adding unnecessary compressor volume.

Since air leaks are almost impossible to see, other methods must be used to locate them. The best way to detect leaks is to use an ultrasonic acoustic detector, Like EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector (ULD). This unit can recognize the high frequency hissing sounds associated with air leaks. A person using the ULD only needs to point it in the direction of the suspected leak. When a leak is present, an audible tone can be heard with the use of the head phones, and the LED display will light.  Testing various unions, pipes, valves and fittings of a complete system can be done quickly and effectively at distances up to 20’ away!

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The advantages of ultrasonic leak detection include flexibility, speed, ease of use, the ability to test the system while machines are running, and the ability to find a wide variety of leaks. They involve very little training, operators often become competent after 10 minutes of training.

Due to the nature of ultrasound, it is directional in transmission. For this reason, the signal is loudest at its source. By scanning around a test area, it is possible to very quickly target in on a leak site and pin point its exact location. For this reason, ultrasonic leak detection is not only fast, it is also very accurate.

An active leak prevention program will embrace the following components: identification, tracking, repair, verification, and employee participation. All facilities with a compressed air system should establish an aggressive leak reduction program. A team involving managerial representatives from production should be formed to carry out this program.

A leak prevention program should be part of an overall program intended to improve the performance of compressed air systems. Once the leaks are found and repaired, the system should be started from the beginning until all leaks are addressed.

A good compressed air system leak repair program is very important in maintaining the efficiency, reliability, stability and cost effectiveness of any compressed air system.

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“First a Plant Engineer or Maintenance Supervisor must realize that leak repair is a journey, not a destination. An ongoing compressed air leak monitoring and repair program should be in place in any plant that has a compressed air system.” Explains Paul Shaw, a General Manager for Scales Industrial Technologies’ Air Compressor Division, and an Advanced CAC Instructor, “Leak identification and remediation with a high quality repair can lead to substantial energy savings that typically has a very rapid payback, usually a year or less. In the hundreds of leak audits and repairs that we have done we’ve found that the quality of the repair is critical to ensuring the customer receive the most value for his investment and that the leak remains repaired for as long as possible. From there, constantly monitoring for compressed air leaks and repairing them as they occur can help the plant continue to reap the energy benefits.”

Above is an excerpt from “Best Practices for Compressed Air Systems”, Appendix 4.E.1.

To discuss your application and how an EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product can help your process, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or one of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Professor Penurious, Mystery Solver!

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

ZOINKS! What have Professor Penurious and the gang gotten into this time? Enjoy viewing this video – we sure do enjoy making them…And recognizing that some day the Oscar committee will be calling.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Supervisory Control Systems

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

SCS Interface

Like I like to do, I’ve been doing some reading about compressed air and compressed air control.  A few weeks ago I wrote about throughput control and I’ve been going over a case study about supervisory control systems (SCS).  These are the devices which dictate primary and secondary compressor system operation to maximize not only throughput, but efficiency too.

In the same blog mentioned above I discussed the methods used to control a compressor, and the other side of that equation is the actual controller which is giving the commands.  These supervisory type of controls are happily routed through a PLC so that, for example, when the discharge flow spikes, a suction throttle valve can be cycled on to restrict the intake flow.  A feedback loop that functions in real time, with controlled set points, can take a compressed air system to the next level.

In the photo at the top of this blog a sketch of the SCS for a hybrid system is shown.  This is from a case study which walks through the blending of a centrifugal compressor and a reciprocating compressor.  On the surface this sounds like it may be complicated and in actuality it’s extremely complicated.  Apparently the biggest problem is heat accumulating as a result of load fluctuations.  In addition to the heat load, there’s the logic needed to allow each compressor to start in sequence, independently, or manually.  For this application, the solution was found using two main lines and two sub lines of ladder logic.  Simple and clever at the same time!

SCS Ladder Logic

Do you have a similar setup to share or interest in this particular case study?  Email me at LeeEvans@EXAIR.com and we can correspond directly.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE