Compressed Air Treasure Hunt Workshop

Tuesday, October 13, 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Go beyond your annual leak detection audit with five impactful, demand-side Treasure Hunt projects designed to reduce flow and pressure, uncovering energy savings opportunities. This workshop strongly supports the U.S. Department of Energy Better Plants’ Treasure Hunt training by providing in-depth compressed air expertise and practical project ideas that extend past occasional, one-off leak audits.

This workshop provides hands-on experience with fully operational table-top compressed air labs with pneumatic circuits.

Attendees will earn 3 PDH credits. Pre-registration is required.

*Source: Articles in Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Meet Our Experts

Workshop Agenda and Compressed Air Labs

Introduction

1. Explanation of flow (cfm) and pressure (psi) as it relates to saving energy

• Reducing plant pressure can reduce horsepower requirements
• Reducing flow requirements reduces the installed horsepower required of air compressors
• 70 psi plant compressed air system pressure (reducing plant pressure by 20 to 30 psi)
  • Gentex success story – 125 to 105 psi
  • 100 psi is the typical plant pressure, meaning air compressors run at 110 psi to account for pressure lost from piping, filters, etc.
  • SMC’s goal is to help plants reach 70 psi system pressure, meaning air compressors will run at 80 psi. The goal is to provide a 30 psi reduction = 15% energy savings on the generation of compressed air

2.  Map out the system

• Demand side
  • Provide example of a plant to use throughout the workshop: Plant currently requires 100 psi (must produce at 110 psi to account for pressure loss). It contains 4 sections (3 production and 1 packaging) and has 80 machines, 70 of which require 70 psi and 10 machines need 90 psi. The plant’s goal is to reach 70 psi
• Supply side
  • Will reducing compressed air flow reduce compressor energy consumption?

Treasure Hunt Project #1: 24/7 Leak Detection Auditing (Flow Reduction)
Opportunity to reduce compressed air flow by 20-25% in most plants, according to the DOE. Moving past the randomly occurring, one-time compressed air leak audit

Gentex will share a success story of how installing 100+ flow meters has virtually eliminated compressed air leaks.

• Step 1: Install flow meters in a majority of demand locations (40-100 locations)
• Step 2: Install wireless communication system back to command center
• Step 3: Monitor for 10% delta on flow
• Step 4: Coordinate with maintenance to send leak repair team to location
• Step 5: Continue to monitor to maintain optimized flow
• Step 6: Shutdown optimization: A) Valving off compressed air supply to the plant or sections of the plant when idle B) Shutting down production equipment when idle

The SMC lab will demonstrate how you can detect leaks instantly for 24/7 leak monitoring

Treasure Hunt Project #2: Reduce Blow-off/Drying Air (Flow Reduction)

Blow-off/drying air is used to physically remove water, debris or residue from parts and surfaces using compressed air. 50-90% flow reductions are common.

• Step 1: Walk around your plant to identify misapplications of compressed air. Examples include drying bottles and cans on beverage filling lines, clearing coolant from metal components, removing excess moisture from meat and poultry before packaging, blowing off dust or debris prior to painting or coating in automotive and finishing operations, clearing chips or particles from assembly lines and removing residual liquids from conveyors or pallets.
• Step 2: Measure the flow of each application
• Step 3: Measure impact pressure and size system accordingly
• Step 4: Size engineered nozzles or air knives/blowers appropriately

The SMC lab will allow participants to execute this project.

Treasure Hunt Project #3: Upgrade Vacuum Venturis (Flow Reduction)

Venturi vacuum is commonly used on pick-and-place robots, vacuum cup lifting systems, cartoners and form fill seal machines, small material transfer units and label applicators. 50-90% flow reductions are common.

• Step 1: Identify all venturi-style vacuum applications. These applications are concentrated in packaging lines, assembly stations, plastics processing areas, electronics manufacturing and bulk material handling points. They’re commonly used on pick-and-place robots, vacuum cup lifting systems, cartoners and form fill seal machines, small material transfer units and label applicators.
• Step 2: Measure compressed air flow at each application
• Step 3: Identify if the vacuum venturis are using compressed air when idle
• Step 4: Upgrade vacuum venturis to latest energy-saving technology, using less flow
  • For older versions of vacuum venturis, 7 cfm at 100 psi was needed for the suction cups, while newer versions use only 2 cfm
• Step 5: Adjust machine controls to turn off when possible: palletizers and carton erectors are very common examples
• Step 6: Learn how to size replacement venturis
• Step 7: Investigate alternatives to venturi-style generators, as appropriate
  • Using a centralized vacuum pump system or magnetic lifting options

SMC will provide a demo of newer venturi vacuum models and magnetic lifting options.

Treasure Hunt Project #4: Reduce Flow at Baghouses/Dust Collectors (Flow Reduction)

Baghouses are commonly found in dust collection systems, central vacuum systems, pneumatic conveying receivers, machining dust extraction units and silo or hopper vent filters. These systems are typically located in bulk material handling areas, packaging and bagging zones, machining departments, mixing and batching rooms and bin venting locations.
The savings opportunities can be extremely significant due to the high volume of compressed air required and the common use of compressed air when idle. Opportunities center on upgrading valve technologies that use less compressed air and don’t fire when idle. Compressed air storage is a consideration, which is often overlooked.

• Step 1: Run dust collectors at the lowest effective pressure
• Step 2: Use pulse‑on‑demand controls based on differential pressure
• Step 3: Upgrade reverse pulse-jet valves to reduce air use
• Step 4: Standardize valves and controls to improve reliability
• Step 5: Prevent moisture from entering dust collectors
• Step 6: Identify baghouse faults that cause unnecessary compressed‑air load
• Step 7: Size compressed air storage to reduce system impact
• Step 8: Add either flow metering or flow control valves to identify excessive air consumption

Treasure Hunt Project #5: Reduce System Pressure to 70 psi (Pressure Reduction)

1.  Fix the FRL (Filter, Regulator, Lubricator) – FRLs can create pressure loss when the filter is obstructed and are the home of 50% of compressed air leaks

• Step 1: Filters
  • Is the filter needed? Is the element even present? Is the drain working?
  • Make sure element replacement is on maintenance schedule
  • What is the pressure loss across each filter? Is there a differential pressure sensor? 95% of filters aren’t equipped with differential pressure sensors
• Step 2: Regulators
  • Is the regulator at the correct pressure? Is the gauge holding steady or are there pressure fluctuations? If there are, air storage solutions should be examined
  • Adjust pressure down to manufacturer’s recommendation or as low as feasible without affecting production
• Step 3: Lubricators
  • Is the lubricator needed? If so, make sure it’s on the maintenance schedule. If not, remove
• Step 4: Measure ancillary benefit of increased machine output due to stabile pressure

2. Identify compressed air users requiring more than 70 psi

• Step 1: Determine whether a machine can be modified to operate at 70 psi or if increased pressure is required.
  • If the machine can be modified, determine the retrofit pneumatic cylinders or actuators required to do so, as larger ones can operate at lower pressure because there’s more force
• Step 2: If higher pressure is required, add a booster and storage as appropriate

Participants will be able to view a demonstration of a booster circuit.

Other Project Ideas and Closing Thoughts

The above steps are only a few examples of demand-side projects you can implement to reduce pressure and flow at your plant. Other examples include:

• Reducing purge air in desiccant dryers
• Replacing refrigerated compressed air dryer drains with zero-loss condensate drains
• Replacing pneumatic vibrators with impact cylinders
• Controls panel enclosure cooling and pressurization
• AODD pumps

This workshop is sponsored by