The Importance Of Preventative Maintenance

The first new car I ever bought was a 1995 Ford Escort Wagon. It got GREAT gas mileage (which was important for my 25 mile one-way commute to the day job), and had ample room to haul my keyboards & amplifier rig (which was just as important to my side hustle as a potential rock star). Since it only had four miles on the odometer – and, it was the first purchase I ever financed over a period of YEARS, I decided to follow the owner’s manual’s maintenance schedule religiously. And it paid off: I got eleven years and just shy of 200,000 miles out of one of the least expensive cars ever made. It was actually still running like a top when I sold it to “upgrade” to a minivan, which suited my needs at the time for a vehicle that fitted the car seats for our little boys (who are now a U.S. Marine and a hippie college student, respectively). I actually followed the maintenance schedule for that minivan too, and got 14 years & almost 180,000 miles out of it, without a major breakdown.

Whether you call it “preventive”, “preventative”, “scheduled”, or “planned” maintenance, there’s an old adage that applies in any case:

“If you don’t plan maintenance, it’ll plan itself without regard to your schedule.”

While following the proverbial “owner’s manual’s maintenance schedule” doesn’t guarantee against catastrophic failures, it’s awfully good insurance against them. For your privately owned vehicles, I encourage you to follow the owner’s guide as best you can. For your compressed air system – from the compressor to the devices it provided compressed to (and everything in between) – there’s likely similar documentation to follow, and for good reason. Consider:

  • Air compressor maintenance. Failure to properly maintain a compressor can increase energy consumption by not keeping it operating as efficiently as possible. For example, just like not periodically replacing your car engine’s air filter will impact your gas mileage, failure to do the same for your compressor’s intake air filter will impact its production of compressed air.
  • Air leaks are costly. Not only do they waste the money you spent on running the compressor (a leak that’s equivalent to a 1/16″ diameter hole costs you over $700.00 annually – let me know if you want to do the math on that), your system pressure takes a hit too. Pressure drop caused by those leaks (plural because there’s rarely just one) can create what’s known as “false demand”, which costs you money as well: every 2psi increase in compressor discharge pressure makes for a 1% increase in power consumption. So, it’s really important to stay on top of them. Regularly scheduled surveys with an instrument like EXAIR’s Model 9207 Ultrasonic Leak Detector allows you to quickly find – and then fix – those leaks.
EXAIR Model 9207 Ultrasonic Leak Detector comes with everything you need to find out if you have a leak (with the parabolic disc, lower right) and then zero in on its exact location (with the tubular extension, bottom).
  • Filters, part 1: I already mentioned the compressor intake filter above, but the rest of the filters in the system need attention from time to time as well. Filter manufacturers typically call for replacing the element in a filter when pressure drop reaches a certain point. I’ve seen published values of 2-5psi for that. Of course, that may not occur at a convenient time to shut down everything downstream of that filter, so lots of folks replace those elements as part of planned maintenance evolutions that require depressurization of that particular part of the system anyway. Dirty filters mean you have to increase their inlet pressure to maintain the same outlet pressure you had when they were clean – and the same 1% increase in power consumption for a 2psi pressure increase applies here too.
  • Filters, part 2: most compressed air operated products have small passages that the air has to flow through, and without filtration, those can get clogged with dirt that the intake filter doesn’t catch, solid particulate from compressor ‘wear & tear’, and rust from header pipe corrosion, just to name the “usual suspects”. An argument could be made that installation & upkeep of properly rated Filter Separators at the point of use of these devices is part of those devices’ planned maintenance. In any case, it’s akin to the awfully good insurance against catastrophic failures I mentioned earlier.
Good engineering practice calls for point of use filtration and moisture removal, such as that provided by EXAIR Filter Separators.

Again, many of the components that make up a typical industrial compressed air system will have a manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule, but if they don’t, how can you properly plan for it? Monitoring of certain system parameters can be a valuable tool for determining how often some planned maintenance should be performed:

  • Power consumption of the compressor. The benefit of measuring & logging this on a regular basis is, if you see sudden changes, you can start looking for what’s causing them. Maybe a bearing or belt is wearing out, some leaks have popped up, or a filter’s clogged. In any case, it’s an indication that SOMETHING needs attention. Large industrial compressors might even have power monitoring in their control scheme. If not, there ARE other parameters you can measure…like:
  • Pressure and flow. EXAIR’s Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters make monitoring these parameters quick and easy. Managing the readings can be done with our USB Data Logger, or you can get it on your computer, via a Zigbee Mesh Gateway, with our Wireless Models.
EXAIR Digital Flowmeters are made for iron, copper, or aluminum compressed air pipe in sizes from 1/2″ to 8″ diameters. Options include Pressure Sensing, Wireless Output, USB Data Logger, Hot Tap, and Metric display.

At EXAIR, we’re committed to helping you get the most out of your compressed air system. If you’d like our help with that, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Featured image courtesy of Compressor1creative commons license

Compressed Air Digital Flow Meters Monitor Your System Demand

In the times we live in, efficiency is key. To offset the rising costs of goods, services, and energy we must be purposeful in lowering costs wherever we can. Every company has large utility expenses such as electricity, water, gas, sewer, waste, and recycling. Many companies have policies and systems in place to help control these expenses. One major utility that gets overlooked is your compressed air. Many companies just loop this expense into the gas and or electricity funnel and move on. But that can be a costly mistake. Assuming you utilize compressed air in your facility, it is most likely your 3rd-4th highest utility expense. The good news is there are many ways to make this utility much more efficient.

We have several EXAIR blogs on how to improve your compressed air efficiency from mitigating leaks, sizing pipe properly, flow control, pressure regulators, engineered nozzles and tools, and even receiver tanks. These are all very effective ways to reduce this expense. There is another tool that I would like to share with you; our Digital Flow Meters. What they are, how they work, and how they can save you money…

With a rough cost of $0.25 per 1000 SCFM, wouldn’t it be nice to know how many SCFM you are using? (Please click here for a great blog on how to calculate your SCFM cost) More importantly how much air are you wasting… Your compressor information already tells you how much air it is producing and with EXAIR’s Digital Flowmeter, you will know the exact amount of compressed air that is being used, making it very easy to identify loss. These losses are primarily found in leaks or inefficient air products. A best practice is to install one of these on each leg of the air distribution system and monitor and and benchmark the compressed air usage.

EXAIR Digital Flowmeter

The EXAIR Flowmeters work by measuring the temperature differential between two probes that are inserted into the compressed air pipes. One probe is kept warmer than the other, and the mass flow rate is determined by the amount of heat required to maintain the temperature differential. The flow rate, or SCFM is displayed on the large digital display

To install the Flowmeters, you will drill 2 holes into your pipe for the probes. Included with the meter is the drill bit and the Drill Guide to quickly install the meter. We have these available in many sizes from 1/2″ to 4″ iron pipe, We also offer these for Copper Pipes, and can make / calibrate them for many others, we will just need the information.

In addition to our standard version we offer several upgrades. One is a Data Logging version. You can download our software and then set the data logging to record from once a second for about 9 hours of data to twice a day for over 2 years worth of data. You simply plug the Data Log Stick this into your computer, download and repeat.

We also offer a wireless option that will run through a ZigBee mesh Network. A radio module within each meter transmits data to an ethernet connected gateway. You can also piggyback meter to meter to extend the range for this wireless solution. Each meter has a range of about 100 feet.

Many people ask if they have to shut down their system to install the Flowmeters. Understanding that this could cause systemic issues, we have a Hot Tap option that will allow you to install while the pipe is still under pressure. It incorporates 2 valves that the probes pass through as well as a muffler that collects the chips from the drilling process. This is only available on the 2″ or larger units.

Speaking of pressure, we also offer a Pressure Sensing Digital flow meter. On this, there is a pressure sensor that is mounted between the two flow sensor probes. The pressure is sent via a second milliamp output. The display can be configured to show either pressure or flow. You can set this to send alarms if the pressure falls under 50 psi. Also only available on 2″ pipes and above.

Finally, we also offer Block Off Rings. These are simply rings to block off holes where the flowmeter was, in case you need to use the same one in a different location.

Please fee free to reach out with any questions, or for more information. Let us help you save air and money…

Thank you for stopping by,

Brian Wages

Application Engineer

EXAIR Corporation
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Compressed Air Flow Meter With Wireless Capability Makes Monitoring Demand Easy

Would you like the ability to monitor your plants compressed air usage from one convenient location?  If the answer is yes, EXAIR has just the solution to fit your needs, EXAIR’s Digital Flow Meter with Wireless Capability.

wirelessdfmpr2_1670x574

Wireless capability is an option for EXAIR’s Digital Flowmeter’s.  It is the efficient way to monitor your compressed air consumption wirelessly utilizing the ZigBee® mesh network.  This is accomplished by a module located within the meter that transmits data to an ethernet connected gateway.  Each meter has a range up to 100 feet (30 meters), however the ZigBee mesh network protocol is very versatile as it allows data to also be transmitted from meter to meter, effectively extending the distance over which the system can operate.  So large facilities with great distances to cover are not a problem.

The Digital Flowmeter with Wireless Capability is offered in a kit with a wireless output flow meter, wireless to ethernet gateway, drill guide, power supplies for each component, and ethernet cable for gateway connectivity.  These kits are best suited for new installations.  They are also available without a gateway if you are simply adding an additional meter to a pre-existing Gateway in your plant.  EXAIR simplifies this process by configuring each gateway to communicate with the flowmeter to provide the necessary communication for monitoring your system.  Models from 1/2″ to 4″  iron pipe are in stock. 5″, 6″ iron pipe,  copper pipe ranging from 3/4″ to 4″ diameter and aluminum pipe from 25mm to 101mm diameter are available with short lead time as a special product offering.  Each digital flowmeter is calibrated for the pipe size to which it is mounted and the large digital display shows air use in either SCFM or Cubic Meters per Hour.

Digital Flow Meter Kit
Digital Flowmeter w/ Wireless Capability, Gateway, and Drill Guide Kit

Setting up the EXAIR Digital Flow Meter with Wireless Capability is super easy.  After the meter is installed download the graphing software from our website and install on your computer.  There is also a video tutorial posted in the previous blog from Tyler Daniel, Video Blog: EXAIR’s New Wireless Digital Flowmeter Installation.

The Digital Flowmeter with Wireless Capability is designed for permanent or temporary mounting to the pipe.  It requires the user to drill two small holes through the pipe using the optional drill guide which includes the drill bit and locating fixture.  The two flow sensing probes of the flowmeter are inserted into these holes.  The unit seals to the pipe once the clamps are tightened.  No cutting, welding, adjustments or calibration are needed, ever!  If the unit needs to be removed, blocking rings are available for the 1/2″ to 4″  iron pipe sizes from stock with other sizes available on short lead time as special orders.

If you have questions on Digital Flowmeter’s, Digital Flowmeter’s with Wireless Capability or need expert advice on safe, quiet and efficient point of use compressed air products give us a call.   We would enjoy hearing from you!

Steve Harrison
Application Engineer
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