Metals

IPS Advises Midwest Industry on Compressed Air Efficiency

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

IPS supplies compressed air to a lot of machinery running outdoors, such as dust collectors and feed mills on grain elevators, as well as to other equipment in environments lower than 32°F (0°C). Temperatures that low require desiccant dryers. Hoffman helps his customers sort out their options and determine which type of desiccant dryer – heatless, heated purge, heated blower purge – is ideal for their needs.

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20 Years of Case Studies: Plants Sharing Best Practices

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® 

For 20 years, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine has published articles focused on helping manufacturers reduce power demand, lower water consumption, and improve the performance of compressed air, cooling, blower and industrial vacuum systems. In this article, we highlight a sampling of those stories across the following industries: Plastics and Packaging Food and Beverage Automotive and Transportation Cement, Building Materials, and Mining Metals, Pulp, and Paper Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, and Research Wastewater Treatment 
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Advanced Compressor Technologies Solves Oversupply Problem

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine 

A Southern Indiana office furniture plant was wasting hundreds of dollars per day because its oversized VSD air compressor could not turn down low enough to match reduced demand after a shift to metal fabrication. To avoid drive faults, the plant vented compressed air to create false load. The audit revealed 300 cfm of wasted air—about $400 per day—and led to a redesigned system using a fixed-speed compressor for base load and a VSD unit for trim. The new configuration eliminated artificial demand and cut compressed air energy use in half, setting the stage for further savings through advanced sequencing, storage, and demand control.
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Kirsh Foundry Drives Energy Efficiency with Compressed Air Optimization

By Juan Espindola, CEM, Facilities Optimization Leader, The Wasmer Company

The energy savings amounted to 550,873.5 kWh per year, resulting in a reduction of \$49,579 in energy costs annually. Additionally, nitrogen savings were significant, with annual expenses dropping by \$8,602 due to the installation of the on-site nitrogen generator. Overall, the project achieved total annual savings of \$58,181, with implementation costs of \$74,676 and an impressive payback period of just 1.28 years.
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Compressed Air, Nitrogen Generation and Chiller Systems at Fabtech 2023

By Roderick M. Smith, Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

FABTECH 2023, a leading event for metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing, successfully wrapped up its four-day run at Chicago's McCormick Place, achieving significant milestones for attendance, exhibitors, and show floor size. The 2023 show floor, spanning an impressive 825,325 square feet across three exhibit halls, featured an extensive showcase of over 1,500 world-class suppliers. 
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Small Piston Air Motors Save Big Energy While Ensuring Safety

By Jerry Zolkowski, Industrial Energy Management Principal Engineer, Consumers Energy Business Energy Efficiency Programs

Vane motors can run at much higher speeds (2000 rpm and up), but piston motors tend to turn much slower – less than 1000 rpm. For slower speed applications, vane motors are mated with a gear reducer and called a gearmotor. The gearmotor can produce the higher torque and slower speed needed for some applications, but the gear reducer can add some drivetrain loss. While a piston air motor may not be able to replace a vane motor where high speed is needed, it can be a good choice for high torque/low speed applications.  
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Air Compressor Control Lessons Learned at Metal Products Company

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Their system was designed and built to achieve premium performance, yet in a recent compressed air assessment the numbers showed their system had surprisingly poor performance, and worse, their staff was unaware of the problems. This article discusses some of the challenges faced and some future solutions that could get their system back to higher performance levels.
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DOE Better Plants Partners Get Serious About Compressed Air Systems

By Robert Lung, BGS, with contributions from: Ed Willhite, Schneider Electric; Stephen Tankersley, Ring Containers; Marco Gonzalez, Waupaca Foundry; and Darwin Jaeger, Plastics Engineering Company.

Compressed air is used in all the company’s plants and is often the single largest energy end use within them. As a result, compressed air energy-saving measures are often replicable across the company and offer significant positive impacts. One area of focus is with compressed air leaks since they are “the best low hanging fruit to focus on and they always keep popping up and waste energy”.
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Metal Fabricator Measures Nitrogen Use, Receives a Surprise

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Nitrogen is used in many facilities for a variety of purposes. The most common source of N2 is through the use of bulk liquid storage. A plant owner was recently surprised to learn that a large portion of his N2 was disappearing, without ever being used by his production process. This article discusses where it went and what we could do about it.
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Compressed Air Supports Growth at Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

“I’ll say this politely. At the end of the day, we shouldn’t have to worry about compressed air, right? We’ve got more important things to worry about,” English said, adding how a recent partnership with Atlas Copco Compressors and other decisions associated with compressed air have hit the mark. “Without clean, compressed air we wouldn’t be able to complete our day-to-day activities. We’re relieved it’s something we don’t need to worry about.”
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Re-engineered Compressed Air System Scores Perfect “10” at PC Forge

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Since completion of the system upgrade in the fall of 2020, PC Forge is on track to save an average of 1.9 million kWh and $266,000.00 per year in energy costs – and increase the production capability of its forging operation by 40%. The project also achieved a one-year payback with a \$245,000 incentive from Government of Ontario’s utility Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).
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IUE-CWA Labor Union Members Embrace Energy Treasure Hunts

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Manufacturers familiar with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® Energy Treasure Hunts initiative know it’s a great way to save energy and natural resources – as long as it’s done right – which is why some are turning to perhaps their best asset to achieve success: their unionized workforce.
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How to Keep Reverse Pulse Dust Collectors Operating Efficiently and Reliably

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Reverse pulse type dust collectors often represent a challenge to compressed air energy efficiency, and sometimes throw a wrench into the works by causing huge air pressure fluctuations, high transient flows and just plain large leaks. This article discusses this type of dust collector, often installed in food processing plants, and gives some real-life examples of problematic installations. Some suggested measures are mentioned to ensure your dust collectors keep running in a trouble-free manner.
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Outsourcing Compressed Air Gives GKN Sintered Metals Peace of Mind

By Jason Onyshko, Total Equipment Company

With an eye toward strengthening its competitive edge, GKN opted for a new approach for the compressed air it uses to power metal molding machines in addition to a variety of other applications at its manufacturing facility. After careful analysis and planning with the Total Equipment Company located in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, GKN opted to move beyond its aging compressed air system – and instead – outsource compressed air as a utility. Doing so allowed it to free up valuable floor space, while also achieving peace of mind since it can now count on a fixed cost for a reliable compressed air supply for years to come.
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Capital & Maintenance Cost Avoidance When Metal Grinding Loads Rise

By Hank van Ormer, Air Power USA

Plant personnel had experienced ongoing problems with its process grinder performance due to unstable compressed air pressure. This created potential problems in terms of product quality. Grinders do not work properly without the proper pressure. Additionally, plant staff wanted to address these concerns, prior to a proposed 30% increase in production, and suggested raising the header pressure from the current operating pressure of 98 psig to 125 psig. The thought behind this was if the pressure from the header to the grinder process was dropping to 63 psig, then raising the pressure to the process would give the grinders enough pressure to work through higher peak production times.  
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Lessons Learned in Rebar Steel Mill Compressed Air System Project

By Tim Dugan, P.E., Compression Engineering Corporation

The steel mill in this article is a rolling “minimill,” a facility that melts scrap recycled steel and produces rebar for the construction industry. It fits in SIC code 3310. There are many plants like this all over the world, providing an environmentally sound service and product for their local community. They recycle waste steel from local sources and support local infrastructure projects with rebar, using electricity generated locally.
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A Case for KPI Measurement in Compressed Air Management

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

All industrial facilities use some form of compressed air, and in most, the air compressors consume a significant amount of the total energy bill. A facility with a good energy management system is likely to identify their compressed air system as a significant energy user (SEU). If the facility were using an energy management standard, such as ISO 50001, they would be required to assess and track the energy consumption of all their SEU’s. In the case of the metal processing facility, they were measuring the output of more than 250 devices within the plant, including building heaters, RTU’s, dust collectors, and also tracking the consumption of their electricity, natural gas and water. 
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Chicago Heights Steel Saves $215,000 Annually in Energy Costs

By Mike Grennier, Contributing Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Chicago Heights Steel, Chicago Heights, Ill., leveraged an advanced data monitoring system and adopted a demand-based compressor air management approach to save 2.5 million kWh and \$215,037 per year in energy costs. With an incentive of \$188, 714 from local utility ComEd, the project delivered a payback of 2.4 months.
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Nitrogen Generation in the Metal Industry

By Patrick Hyland, Technical Specialist, Valin Corporation

Factory lasers use nitrogen right at the cutting point on the metal because the high temperatures used in the process can often cause oxidation. When oxidation occurs, the metal pieces being cut can be damaged, as can the tooling creating the cut. Structural damage or inaccurate cuts can make parts weak and render them useless. The use of nitrogen at the point of contact from laser to metal removes oxygen from the cutting area and helps cool the die as it cuts, thus preventing oxidation. This prevention improves the quality of the final products, produces less scrap metal and cuts back on the reworking of pieces.
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Zinc Producer Reduces Compressed Air Use by 1,090 scfm

By Don van Ormer, Air Power USA

A zinc producer spends an estimated \$516,000 annually on electricity to operate the air compressors in a compressed air system at its north American plant.  The current average electric rate, at this plant, is 5 cents per kWh, and the compressed air system operates 8,760 hours per year. This system assessment recommended a group of projects able to reduce these energy costs by fifty-one percent (51%) to an annualized \$270,000.  The simple payback of the project was 15 months – without taking into account potential incentive dollars from the local utility.
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International Wire Compressed Air System Upgrade Recovers Heat

By Brian Sorbello, Rogers KNW Series Northeast Regional Manager, Rogers Machinery Company

While late summer may not be the time of year many of us think about heat recovery, the potential for energy savings in compressed air systems should be on our minds year-round. For those involved with the compressed air systems within International Wire Group’s facilities, energy savings is on their minds each day. This culture of continuous improvement has everyone on the lookout for savings wherever possible.
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Canadian Steel Processor Optimizes Compressed Air at Two Facilities

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

A steel distribution and processing company has upgraded and consolidated the compressed air systems in two of their distribution and processing facilities for big energy savings. The previous compressed air systems were running in modes of operation with very low efficiency. A complete replacement of the two systems with new air compressors and dryers has reduced the energy consumption significantly.
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Canadian Glass Plant Optimizes Autoclave Compressed Air

By Alan Brossault, President, Compressor Management

The facility uses a large amount of electricity to manufacture laminated glass in the autoclave process. This process is the largest consumer of compressed air in the facility which made compressed air a major target in reducing energy costs for the facility. As the volume of compressed air in the autoclave is significant, the system is constantly pressurized with large 150 HP air compressors to reduce production times and fill times of the autoclave.
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Metal Fabricator Keeps Compressed Air Demand Low

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

The company specializes in fabrication of precision assembled customized parts for OEM’s and system integrators. Since 1997 the company has steadily grown in size and capacity as the demand for its high quality fabrications has increased.  Through the years, many new CNC machines, laser cutters and powder coat painting operations have been added, but with all the expansion the facility has amazingly kept the plant compressed air consumption low. This has been achieved by following excellent “best practice” compressed air efficiency principles and by keeping watch on system waste.
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Compressed Air is a Star at Ball Corporation

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Paying close attention to compressed air use is paramount for identifying potential energy-saving projects. The engineering team at Ball Corporation has been well aware of this fact for years. An active member in the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® program, Ball Corporation scrutinizes manufacturing processes to maximize the energy efficiency of compressed air systems in each of its plants.
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Control Improvements at Forge Plant Make Big Impact

By Ron Marshall

Metaldyne Performance Group (called MPG in this article) Plant 1 in Columbus, Indiana (formerly known as Impact Forge) has made significant efficiency improvements to their compressed air system.  With the help of their service provider, IAC Air Compression, MPG has implemented some innovative control on their existing air compressors, added new air compressors with variable capacity control, and tied everything together with a modern central controller.  This installation has been recognized for its wise use of power by their power utility Duke Energy.
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