Industrial Utility Efficiency

System Assessments

Given that compressed air leak management programs are meant to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions, and generate ROI, DENSO’s Maryville, Tennessee, manufacturing facility can definitively say it has scored a trifecta when it comes to results – and reaped benefits beyond hard numbers alone.

Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds™ Optimizes Piping and Air Compressor Automation

The Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds campus in Lost Hills, California is a manufacturing facility that processes and packages pistachios and almonds for the consumer market. Food processing requires extensive use of compressed air to control multiple applications ranging from actuators, valves, optical sorters, packaging equipment and plant maintenance operations. The campus has its peak season during harvest in late August/early September, but processing and packaging operations take place year-round.

Are My Pulse Jet Dust Collectors Wasting Compressed Air?

Pulse jet dust collectors are common air/material separators in the food industry serving as dust collectors, bin vents, and pneumatic conveying filter/receivers.  The biggest complaint I’ve heard from plant managers and plant engineers about these is that “these collectors don’t make us any money”.  While that is true, they can COST a plant a significant amount of money if they aren’t maintained.  Wasted compressed air is one of the worst offenders, as it not only costs the plant in energy costs associated with creating and conditioning the air, but also in premature bag failure from improper cleaning, production downtime, and inefficient dust collection leading to increased housekeeping requirements, and other many issues.

Troubleshooting Heatless Desiccant Dryer Proves Challenging Yet Successful

One of the most satisfying parts of being a compressed air system auditor is resolving compressed air system reliability issues. This article exposes a seldom, if ever, mentioned problem that can occur when air dryers are dedicated to air compressors. It examines a real-world application and discusses the action taken to remedy the situation.

Three Real-World Applications for Pneumatics and IIoT

Industrial operations and manufacturers using pneumatics have access to more Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology than ever before, from position sensors on cylinders to system flow sensors and edge gateways that operate independently from the machine controller with globally accepted communication protocols.

Dust Collector Pilot Program Points to 16 GWh of Energy Savings at Imerys Minerals Processing Facilities

For Imerys S.A. there’s little question about the importance of managing dust collection systems it uses to control and reduce harmful particulates in its worldwide minerals processing facilities. And now there’s zero doubt about the tremendous energy savings it stands to save by reducing the amount of compressed air needed for these same dust collectors.

AZEK Compressed Air Project Enhances Reliability While Saving Energy

The AZEK Company is a producer of durable and low maintenance building materials, and like many manufacturers, it found its compressed air system to be time consuming and expensive to keep maintained. But that changed after the company replaced its outdated and faulty compressed air system with a new design that includes technically advanced air compressors, dryers, receiver tanks – as well as controls to provide better control of the entire system and achieve optimal performance.

Networked Air Compressors Operate in Harmony at Automotive Manufacturer

When an automotive company added a new 200-horsepower (hp) rotary screw air compressor and accompanying dryer to a satellite building at its Chicago-area assembly plant, it needed a cost-effective way to integrate the equipment into its existing compressed air network. Doing so would allow plant personnel to easily monitor the air compressor’s performance and ensure it operates in harmony with the plant’s centrifugal air compressors. Importantly, it would contribute to efficient and reliable air compressor operation at all times.

Smart Monitoring: The Power Behind Pneumatics Productivity

In manufacturing and packaging facilities that rely on pneumatics, there’s a four-letter word worse than virtually any other: leak. Unidentified air leakage and unexpected maintenance in pneumatic systems are significant sources of revenue and productivity loss but identifying the cause of leakages and preventing unforeseen downtime is typically a challenge.

Nitrogen Generation System Helps Death Wish Coffee Gain Production Efficiencies

As founding members of a startup company in the compressed air and gas purification and separation industry, nano-purification solutions felt a kinship with the owners, employees and mission of Death Wish Coffee Co. The kinship and nano-purification solutions’ expertise in onsite nitrogen generation led to the installation of a nitrogen generation system that contributes to the overall efficiencies and operational costs savings at the coffee roaster’s production operation in Round Lake, New York.

How to Manage Compressed Air Systems During High-Demand Events

One of the challenges with compressed air system design is dealing with periodic large flow demands. Food and beverage manufacturers are among those process industries that often face these events. Adding in the compressed air demands of onsite packaging further adds to the task.

Compressor Controls

As part of its ongoing corporate initiative to find ways to reduce its energy bills, and the costly

Piping Storage

Blowing a jet of compressed air at an object is a common but “poor” use of compressed air. Often

End Uses

In this article, we will provide detail on the characteristics of the baseline system and then

Pressure

During Dealer Week, they needed enough compressed air to power multiple machines at a time all day

Air Treatment/N2

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase of manufacturing facilities

Leaks

Given that compressed air leak management programs are meant to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions,

Pneumatics

If there was ever a place where manufacturers can save energy using compressed air and make

Vacuum/Blowers

A ‘Process’ application, is one where it’s all about controlling the contents of a vessel, pipeline