Industrial Utility Efficiency

Plastics

Air Compressor and Chiller Innovations at NPE2024

By Troy Dreier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine 

NPE2024: The Plastics Show took place in Orlando, Florida, May 2024, and Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine and Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine were there to cover the highlights. This year’s conference drew over 50,000 registrants, including 15,000 from outside the United States. Filling both buildings of the Orlando Convention Center, the conference included zones dedicated to bottling, recycling and sustainability, material science, advanced manufacturing, mold-making and packaging. 

Read Full Story

ABC Compressors Supports Logoplaste Embedded Wall-to-Wall Sustainable Manufacturing

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Logoplaste, based in Cascais, Portugal, introduced its embedded wall-to-wall manufacturing model to reduce waste and increase efficiency. The model also results in a more economically and environmentally sustainable method of production of rigid plastic packaging since it eliminates the need for a separate secondary packaging plant and the logistics associated with transporting empty bottles. 
[ Read Full Story ]

PET Plants Using Boosters for High Pressure Air

By Hank van Ormer, Technical Director, AP Energy

The use of high performance boosters to raise low pressure air (100 psig) to high pressure air (500-600 psig) for blow molders is very power efficient and offers good operating performance and reliability when well applied. 
[ Read Full Story ]

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”.
[ Read Full Story ]

Why a Centrifugal Air Compressor May Be the Better Choice

By Richard Huguenor, Business Development Manager for Oil Free Products at Sullair, LLC.

When selecting an air compressor for your manufacturing operation, the common choice is the industry-standard rotary screw compressor. Known as the work horse of compressed air machinery, the rotary screw compressor comes in a multitude of sizes and power levels. However, centrifugal compressors have seen some exciting technological progress in recent years and offer a wide range of pressures, flow and turndown. Long known for their longevity and durability, they offer higher efficiency, even qualifying for energy rebate programs offered by local utilities and all, notably, produce Class 0 oil free air.
[ Read Full Story ]

Making an Impact at Berry Global

By Roderick Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Berry Global was established in 1967 as a small hometown company, based in Evansville, Indiana. Today it is still headquartered in Evansville but has grown to 48,000+ global employees and more than 295 locations. Generating \$12.6 billion in 2019 pro forma net sales, Berry Global creates innovative packaging and protection solutions.
[ Read Full Story ]

Schoeneck Containers Leaves No Stone Unturned with Compressed Air

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

When compressed air is essential to the production of up to one million plastic containers per day there’s little room for error. That’s why Schoeneck Containers, Inc. (SCI) leaves no stone unturned to ensure its compressed air systems run smoothly at all times and without fail at its bustling facilities in Wisconsin.
[ Read Full Story ]

Sustainability Pillars at Intertape Polymer Group Inc.

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

In February 2021, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed members of the Intertape Polymer Group Inc. (IPG) Sustainability Pillars team to gain an understanding of the work being done to improve energy efficiency. The team members interviewed were Michael Jones (Director of Corporate Energy), Michael Deitering (Senior Project Engineer), Jarrod Knapp (Maintenance Manager) and Mark Secord (Engineering Group Leader).  
[ Read Full Story ]

Winpak Reduces Demand by 33% and Switches to Oil-Free Air Compressors

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

By making changes primarily focused on compressed air uses, Winpak, an international plastics products manufacturer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, increased compressed air production capacity and reduced annual energy consumption by 33%. These benefits have been accomplished while the company was making the switch to lubricant-free compressed air to support product quality goals. This article discusses some of these changes and addresses measures that could be implemented in any compressed air system.
[ Read Full Story ]

Pneumatics Boost Productivity of Doroti Pack Thermoforming Machine

By Daniel Math, Aventics

For more than 20 years, Hungarian-based Doroti Pack Ltd. has specialized in the production and servicing of state-of-the-art packaging machines. Their focus is on developing, manufacturing, producing and selling premium-quality packaging equipment, including their line of DorPack thermoforming machines which are often used for food products such as fresh meat, fish, dairy products, bakery ware, confectionery and ready-cooked foods. Dorati Pack chose to incorporate Aventics pneumatic components in latest thermoforming machine for optimal productivity and machine longevity.
[ Read Full Story ]