Tag: line loss

Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System — Step 5: Intermediate Storage

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

If you use compressed air for ANYTHING, odds are EVERYTHING you use it for has a minimum supply pressure for proper operation. And if the supply pressure drops below that:

  • Blowoff devices won’t develop enough flow & force to effectively clean or dry the object(s) you use them for.
  • Air-operated chucks on CNC machines won’t hold the piece steady enough for proper cutting, and tool changers will operate slowly/sluggishly. This is a bad combination…increasing the time it takes to make something, AND making it poorly.
  • Pneumatic cylinders will actuate slowly…if at all. This can cause a big problem if, for instance, they’re used to lift a lid on a mixing tank for an automated chemical add, which ends up pouring all over the partially closed lid of the tank instead of going inside it.

These are just a few of the problems that inadequate supply pressure can lead to, and I list them specifically because I experienced them all during my storied (and strange) career path before EXAIR made me the compressed air know-it-all expert I am today. It wasn’t my job to fix those problems (I was on site doing field service on a scale, a hydraulic motor, and a chemical pump, respectively), so I had no idea HOW to fix the compressed air-related problems…but I do now.

One quick & easy fix would have been to increase the compressor discharge pressure. That’d work just fine, but it comes with a cost. Every 2psi increase in discharge pressure increases the power consumption of the compressor’s motor by 1%. Let’s say you increased the discharge pressure from 100psig to 120psig – that’s a 10% increase in power consumption…and operating cost. To add insult to injury, that also increases the magnitude of any leaks in your system, making them more costly as well.

EXAIR Model 9500-60 60 Gallon Receiver Tank.

Actually, that probably IS what I’d have done as a scale, hydraulics, or industrial pump technician. The RIGHT answer, though, is intermediate storage. A properly sized Receiver Tank, located close enough to those operations, would have prevented those problems without increasing operating costs. In fact, it could have even brought them down, if the compressed air header pressure was already set to overcome any pressure drops on the way to those air guns, CNC machine, or mixing tank lid cylinders. Every 2% DECREASE in discharge pressure will also decrease the compressor motor’s power consumption by 1%. Which is actually Step 6 in our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System.

You electrical-types out there could also think of it as a capacitor – absorbing demand spikes & helping the circuit run more evenly.

Sizing a Receiver Tank is fairly straightforward, and we’ve written about it here, here, and here. You can, of course, always contact an Application Engineer to do (or check) the math…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Your Compressed Air Plumbing Could be Causing your Pressure Drop

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Pressure drop is an unavoidable occurrence in compressed air systems. It’s caused by restrictions or obstructions to flow in your system, and that includes…well, everything:

  • No matter how big your header, drops, supply lines, etc. are, pressurized fluid encounters friction with the inside diameter of the conduit through which it flows.
  • Odds are, your header has at least a few elbows, wyes, tees, reducers, etc. Individually, the restrictions from these are usually quite small, but when you look at a system full of them, they can add up.
  • The type of piping your header is made of matters as well. Iron pipe WILL rust, which roughs up the inside wall of the pipe, and increases friction. Copper and aluminum aren’t near as bad, but there’s no such thing as a zero coefficient of friction.
  • Filters force the air flow through very small passages, torturous paths, or directional changes to remove particulate, moisture, and oil/oil vapor.
  • While not a restriction or obstruction, leaks in your system DO let out perfectly good compressed air before it can be used, so they can be included in our discussion.

Before you go off and redesign your air distribution header or remove your filters (DON’T do that!), it’s important to point that, historically, the highest pressure drops occur at or near the points of use:

  • Undersized hoses. The friction mentioned in the first ‘bullet’ above is compounded by increasing length, and decreasing diameter, of your air operated products’ supply lines. If your product’s performance is suffering, look up its rated air consumption and compare that to the flow rating of the length & diameter of the supply line.
  • Quick connect fittings. The push-to-connect types are particularly notorious for this…the air has to flow around the plug that stops flow when it’s disconnected. You can either replace them with threaded fittings, or if you still want the convenience of the quick connect, consider bushing up a size or two. A 3/8 NPT push to connect fitting will flow twice as much as a 1/4 NPT, and a 1/2 NPT will flow over three times as much as a 1/4 NPT fitting. In the EXAIR R&D room, Efficiency Lab, and shop, we actually use 3/4 NPT quick connects for a wide range of testing, demonstration, performance, etc.
  • Leaks. Even if they’re not big enough to cause a pressure drop, they’re still wasting compressed air. And if they ARE causing pressure drops, please stop reading this and go fix them, right now. Yeah; it’s that important.
Back to back Elbows, Tapered fittings, clean outs and ball vales all cause friction in the line resulting in Pressure loss.

Now, there are culprits on the supply side too: after coolers, dryers, and system filters can all contribute to pressure drops if they’re improperly sized, or, more often, improperly maintained. For troubleshooting, your first and best shot is to have pressure gauges at strategic locations…you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And not managing it can get costly:

  • Let’s say your compressor discharge header pressure is set to 100psig, but an undersized hose is only letting you get 65psig to an air operated product that really needs 80psig. You can increase your header pressure to 115-120psig to “push” more air through that hose, but keep in mind that all your other unregulated loads will get that pressure increase as well: pneumatic cylinders would operate faster, impact drivers will generate more torque, blow off devices will use more air (and get louder), etc.
  • Even if those things weren’t a problem, it’s going to cost you more. For every 2psi increase in your compressor’s discharge pressure, its power consumption increases by 1 percent. So, for the 20psi increase, it’s going to cost you about 10% more to operate that compressor. A larger diameter air hose, on the other hand, is a one time investment that doesn’t affect the rest of your compressed air system.
  • If you haven’t fixed the leaks I mentioned above yet, increasing your supply pressure will increase the leakage flow rate and, especially if the leak’s in a hose or hose fitting, it can tear that opening wider, compounding the leakage flow rate further.

EXAIR Corporation is keen on making sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you’ve got questions, we’ve got knowledge, and a wealth of resources to help…give us a call.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Compressed Air Pipe

Intelligent Compressed Air: Distribution System Design

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

No matter what kind of compressor you have, or what you use compressed air for, a critical part of your system is the distribution system. My neighbor has a 5HP reciprocating compressor that sits on top of a 50 gallon tank in his garage. Unlike me, he LIKES working on cars, and has a variety of pneumatic tools, and a really nice air operated paint sprayer that he can make a car look brand new with. Anyway, his “distribution system” is a 1/2″ rubber air hose with a quick connect on the end. And that works just fine for him.

On the other end of the compressed-air-system-complexity spectrum, a large manufacturing facility may have a few (or more) compressors, and they may not even be in the same room. Today, we’re going to look at the factors that affect distribution design, and some of the “pros and cons” of those designs.

The two main types of supply systems…centralized (where there’s one single compressor room), and de-centralized (where individual compressors are located throughout the facility). There are advantages, and disadvantages to both as far as maintenance, number of operators required, controls, utilities, and noise reduction go. The main impact of these on the distribution and storage layout falls largely on distribution design. Supply headers have to be adequately sized, and plumbed, to get sufficient air flow to the farthest usage points from a centralized compressor room. Inadequate initial design, or adding load without considering flow capacity to service added load, can lead to increasing compressor discharge pressure to keep point of use pressure at the required level. De-centralized systems aren’t usually as affected…because they’re closer to their points of use by design, there’s less pressure loss through the distribution lines.

Whether the supply side is centralized or de-centralized, the advantages & disadvantages of different distribution piping layouts are similar in nature. Let’s look at a Loop design:

In this design, the compressors feed a complete loop of piping, with drops at points of use.

Since compressed air loses pressure due to friction as it flows through the distribution piping, it’s always important to design for the distance from the compressor, to the point of use, to be as short as possible. A Loop design facilitates this by allowing the air to reach any point of use from two directions…by definition, the farthest that the air has to travel is half the total length of the piping.

The other basic style of distribution layout is called “Trunk & Branch”:

In this design, the “trunk” (the horizontal line) feeds a series of “branches” (the vertical lines) to various points of use.

If the distance from the compressor(s) to the farthest point of use isn’t excessively long, a Trunk & Branch system is a lower cost alternative, because it uses less pipe. Keep in mind that line loss will necessarily create a pressure drop that steadily increases, the farther it gets from the compressor. If that means you have to use larger pipe, your installation & materials costs start to creep right back up. The larger the facility, the more sense it makes to consider a Loop design. Alternately, a de-centralized compressor layout can minimize line loss in a Trunk & Branch design too. Locating a compressor on the right-hand side of the sketch above, for example, will effectively give you the major benefit of a Loop design: allowing air to reach any point of use from both directions.

At EXAIR, our mission is to help you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you have questions, we’ve got answers – give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Intelligent Compressed Air: Piping and Pressure Drop

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Pressure drop is an unavoidable occurrence in compressed air systems. It’s caused by restrictions or obstructions to flow in your system, and that includes…well, everything:

  • No matter how big your header, drops, supply lines, etc. are, pressurized fluid encounters friction with the inside diameter of the conduit through which it flows.
  • Odds are, your header has at least a few elbows, wyes, tees, reducers, etc. Individually, the restrictions from these are usually quite small, but when you look at a system full of them, they can add up.
  • The type of piping your header is made of matters as well. Iron pipe WILL rust, which roughs up the inside wall of the pipe, which adds friction. Copper and aluminum aren’t near as bad, but there’s no such thing as a zero coefficient of friction.
  • Filters force the air flow through very small passages, torturous paths, or directional changes to remove particulates, moisture, and oil/oil vapor.
  • While not a restriction or obstruction, leaks in your system DO let out perfectly good compressed air before it can be used, so they can be included in our discussion.

Before you go off and redesign your air distribution header or remove your filters (DON’T do that!), it’s important to point that, historically, the highest pressure drops occur at or near the points of use:

  • Undersized hoses. The friction mentioned in the first ‘bullet’ above is compounded by increasing length, and decreasing diameter, of your air operated products’ supply lines. If your product’s performance is suffering, look up its rated air consumption and compare that to the flow rating of the length & diameter of the supply line.
  • Quick connect fittings. The push-to-connect types are particularly notorious for this…the air has to flow around the plug that stops flow when it’s disconnected. You can either replace them with threaded fittings, or if you still want the convenience of the quick connect, consider bushing up a size or two. A 3/8 NPT push to connect fitting will flow twice as much as a 1/4 NPT, and a 1/2 NPT will flow over three times as much as a 1/4 NPT fitting. In the EXAIR R&D room, Efficiency Lab, and shop, we actually use 3/4 NPT quick connects for a wide range of testing, demonstration, performance, etc.
  • Leaks. Even if they’re not big enough to cause a pressure drop, they’re still wasting compressed air. And if they ARE causing pressure drops, please stop reading this and go fix them, right now. Yeah; it’s that important.

Now, there are culprits on the supply side too: aftercoolers, dryers, and system filters can all contribute to pressure drops if they’re improperly sized, or, more often, improperly maintained. For troubleshooting, your first and best shot is to have pressure gauges at strategic locations…you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And not managing it can get costly:

  • Let’s say your compressor discharge header pressure is set to 100psig, but an undersized hose is only letting you get 65psig to an air operated product that really needs 80psig. You can increase your header pressure to 115-120psig to “push” more air through that hose, but keep in mind that all your other unregulated loads will get that pressure increase as well: pneumatic cylinders would operate faster, impact drivers will generate more torque, blow off devices will use more air (and get louder), etc.
  • Even if those things weren’t a problem, it’s going to cost you more. For every 2psi increase in your compressor’s discharge pressure, its power consumption increases by 1 percent. So, for the 20psi increase, it’s going to cost you about 10% more to operate that compressor. A larger diameter air hose, on the other hand, is a one time investment that doesn’t affect the rest of your compressed air system.
  • If you haven’t fixed the leaks I mentioned above yet, increasing your supply pressure will increase the leakage flow rate and, especially if the leak’s in a hose or hose fitting, it can tear that opening wider, compounding the leakage flow rate further.

EXAIR Corporation is keen on making sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you’ve got questions, we’ve got knowledge, and a wealth of resources to help…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook