Tag: preventative

Erratic Performance And Simple Solutions

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

If that’s not a vague title that would get you to click on the blog, then I’m not sure what is. The image definitely adds some context to what this may be about. Nearly one year ago I wrote a blog about tailored cooling solutions and industrial controls. It’s a fairly simple process that doesn’t require a lot of time and often results in some improved performance for electrical enclosures running cooler. Well, one of the keys to understanding how to do this is the basics of air movement and always starting at the top.

The 2017 Honda Pioneer 1000. Sitting nose in to the closest light we had before, we replaced batteries so we could easily see where to hook up the jumper pack.

This past weekend I took two of my daughters and one of their friends to some other friend’s property near Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. If you have a property like this with equipment like side by side or boat that isn’t used frequently, then you understand how easy it is for equipment to start acting up for no apparent reason. Even if you run a machine shop or company with excellent preventative maintenance, you know that sometimes, stuff happens and machines go offline. This past weekend, we had three of three machines go offline at the property. After some troubleshooting and repairs, we had 3 for three back up and running. The fun part for me is always the troubleshooting and discovery.

The first was the boat. I didn’t get any repair photos. It is a 150 HP out-drive motor that had fuel issues. We traced it to a fueling problem and after fresh fuel, fuel filter, new spark plug, swapping coils between locations, and swapping fuel injectors, we determined there must’ve been a clog in the fuel rail as it cleared up and ran great. That’s when the rain hit. So then we went on to the side by side. This beautiful machine right here was going into limp mode anytime you reached wide open throttle. One of two batteries was fairly weak and required jump-starting, so we started there, then it still did it. When working on the batteries, we did find a nice little mouse nest in the air pre-cleaner. That box has about a 2″ I.D. tube that runs from the front of the vehicle to just behind the front seats where the motor and air filter/box sit. After the battery didn’t solve the issue, we moved to the next basic issue; air and fuel. It had plenty of fresh fuel, so we started with air. When we removed the air filter, we found an entire 44 gallon trash bag that had essentially been vacuum formed into the air filter. We had two guesses. One was the mice, the other was that someone who previously owned it must’ve sat it in that 2″ tube when they were working on the vehicle to prevent anything from falling down it and over time it worked its way back to fully block the filter. Once that was removed, the machine ran tremendously better with no issues. So a simple lack of air movement took this performance machine to its knees.

The culprit… The 44 gallon bag was formed to the pleats of the air filter. Still in usable condition, needless to say, it went into the permanent trash container far away from the air intake.

That’s a lot like an air-to-air heat Exchanger with a filter that hasn’t been changed in a machine or production area full of floating air debris. I’ve seen spindle drives on CNC machines that had heat dissipation fins where you couldn’t see the fins, just a brick of oily soaked chips. This will cause drive failure in no time, just like the side by side, Lack of appropriate air movement took the machine offline and no fun was had.

If you want to look at a solution with no moving parts and that is extremely reliable, much like the fact we left the hood open, so the mice don’t feel so secure in that pre-filter area, contact an Application Engineer today to let us help you size your Cabinet Cooler System. Even if you want to use these as a fail-safe for your equipment.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Basic System Maintenance

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Maintenance is something that can have two different forms; preventative and reactive. At home, I try to ensure I perform preventative maintenance on my major appliances. For instance, I clean the coils on my A/C condensing coils at least once a year, if not twice. I change the intake air filter on the air handler once a month because it is a 1″ thick filter, which is the manufacturer’s recommendation. When it comes to our aging vehicle fleet of two, I do a combination of preventative maintenance such as tire rotations, fluid checks and changes, as well as reactive maintenance such as thermostat replacements and sensor changes when they go bad.

Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant Mechanical Technician
1 – Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant Mechanical Technician

Regarding industrial facilities, the same kind of maintenance can be found. I have worked in facilities where the only type of maintenance that is done is in fact reactive. You know the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That is legit how some of these facilities I have been through function. In fact, they will take parts off a broken production line that they are waiting on the parts for and put on another machine when it breaks down just to keep something going. The inventory of replacement parts was non-existent on-site and would cause downturns due to mechanical failures often. This has resulted in low up-time scores, which also sends production costs through the roof because they are trying to make up for downed lines by running overtime and increasing speeds on the lines that aren’t down.

While preventative maintenance can seem like it is costly and troublesome because it can take a machine out of production, I assure you it is still cheaper and easier than having that emergency maintenance call that comes after hours on a Friday. This is one of the main reasons we talk about installing point-of-use filters on systems that require clean compressed air. If you start to see more than a 5 psig drop across a filter, then you should look at replacing the filter element to ensure optimal performance like the video below showcases for model 9004. Should something like a main dryer fail, these point-of-use filters will help to collect any bypass or remnants in the system from just such a failure of up-stream equipment.

If you would like to discuss other preventative maintenance steps, like monitoring the usage of a system to see leakage when it starts, or how to clean and maintain your EXAIR products, contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

1 -PEO ACWA, 1/14/2019, Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant Mechanical Technician, retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/acwa/39775534373/in/photostream/

Six Step to Optimization:  Step 2 – Finding and fixing leaks

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

Since air compressors use a lot of electricity to make compressed air, it is important to use the compressed air as efficiently as possible. EXAIR has six simple steps to optimize your compressed air system. Following these steps will help you to cut electricity costs, reduce overhead, and improve your bottom line. In this blog, I will cover the second step – Find and Fix leaks in your compressed air system.

One of the largest problems affecting compressed air systems is leaks.  That quiet little hissing sound from the pipelines is costing your company much money.  For the amount of electricity required to produce compressed air, a study was conducted by a university to determine the percentage of air leaks in a typical manufacturing plant.  In a poorly maintained system, they found on average that 30% of the compressor capacity is lost through air leaks.  A majority of companies do not implement a leak prevention program; as result, many end up with a poorly maintained system.  To put a dollar value on it, a leak that you cannot physically hear can cost you as much as $130/year.  That is just for one inaudible leak in hundreds of feet of compressed air lines.  For the leaks that you can hear, you can tell by the chart below the amount of money that can be wasted by the size of the hole.  Unlike a hydraulic system, compressed air does not create a mess; so, leaks will not appear at the source.  You have to locate them by some other means. 

Most leaks occur where you have threaded fittings, connections, hoses, and pneumatic components like valves, regulators, and drains.  The Optimization products from EXAIR are designed to help optimize your compressed air system, and the most effective way is to eliminate leaks.  The Ultrasonic Leak Detectors can find the air leaks, and the Digital Flowmeters can monitor your system flow especially for those times when production is not running.  With both of these products implemented in a leak preventative program, you will have a far easier time identifying and locating leaks in order to keep your compressed air system running in an optimum condition.

EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector:

When a leak occurs, it emits an ultrasonic noise caused by turbulence.  These ultrasonic noises can be at a frequency which is inaudible for human hearing (> 20 kHz).  The EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector, model 9207, can pick up these frequencies and make the leaks audible through a process called “heterodyning”.  With a signal strength number and bar graph level display, you can find very minute leaks.  It comes with two attachments; the parabola to locate leaks up to 20 feet away, and a tube attachment to define the exact location of a leak among many connections within a pipe.  Once you find a leak, it can be marked for fixing.  This simple-to-use instrument can save you a lot of money and headaches.  You can watch a video about the Ultrasonic Leak Detector at this LINK.

EXAIR’s Digital Flowmeter w/ USB Data Logger

EXAIR Digital Flowmeter:

With the Digital Flowmeters, you can continuously monitor for waste.  Air leaks can occur at any time within any section of your pneumatic area.  You can do systematic checks by isolating sections, using a Digital Flowmeter to review flow readings.  Another way to monitor your system would be to compare the results over time.  With the Digital Flowmeters, we do offer the USB Datalogger as an option.  You can set certain time increments to record the air flows.  Once the information is recorded, you can connect the USB to your computer, and with the downloadable software, you can view the information.  You can also export it into an Excel spreadsheet to monitor.  Once the flow information starts trending upward for the same process, then you can use the Ultrasonic Leak Detector to find if and where a leak may be present.  The Digital Flow Meter can also act as a preventive measure to indicate when a pneumatic system is starting to fail by analyzing readings over time.

Compressed air leaks will rob your system of its capacity, compressor life, and electrical cost.  It is important to have a leak preventative program to check for leaks periodically as they can happen at any time.  The EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector and the Digital Flowmeters will help you accomplish this and optimize your compressed air system.  Once you find and fix all your leaks, you can then focus on improving the efficiency of your blow-off devices with EXAIR products like Super Air Knives, Super Air Nozzles, and Super Air Amplifiers, and save yourself even more money.  This blog is an overview of Step 2 of the six steps. You may have more questions; and, that is great! You can find them in other EXAIR blogs, or you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Clean Up Clean Up… Everybody Do Your Part

Published on by Brian Farno2 Comments

Okay, if the title doesn’t get the song stuck in your head, maybe the YouTube video will. Whenever our kids were younger, my wife and I would start to sing this song when the kids didn’t want to help clean up, and then we would just be singing and trying to get them to clean up with the words. Eventually, they would help…

1 – Clean Up – Barney

So what does this have to do with industrial compressed air? Well, the compressed air system generally starts in a remote corner or location in the facility that not many people venture to. It is often where there is minimal routine cleaning that can directly impact the well-being of the air compressors for a facility.

We’ve blogged about this many times on critical ways to improve your compressed air system, and we often touch on ensuring you have clean compressed air. That all starts with the room or areas the compressors are housed in. If you keep the area clean and keep the air exchanging there, then the compressor has clean, fresh air to entrain and begin the compression process. If your compressor condensate drain just goes into a puddle and oil dry gets thrown on top of it, then that dust and debris all begin to become airborne over time. That gets entrained into the intake and not to mention the smell and biomass that begins to generate is rather foul. If oil or some other lubricant gets spilled and not cleaned up when it happens, then when a real leak develops on the compressor it can’t be found because the area is already covered in oil and grime that never gets cleaned.

The notorious “Compressor Closet” that never gets opened in a small shop.

When trying to perform preventative maintenance and the area is littered with debris, oil dry, unused parts, and dimly lit, you can’t easily see or find all the maintenance points on the equipment and will often spend more time trying to clean the area up than the actual maintenance takes. Adding a cleaning process to the weekly routine of the area is one of the best things that can be done for the compressor room/area. It makes operators more aware of where the compressed air is coming from and should anything not look right, it makes it easier to see and report.

If you would like to talk about other key components to optimizing your compressed air system, contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, Application Engineer