Industrial Utility Efficiency

Air Compressors

Best Practices 2024 EXPO & Conference Show Report

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, and Brooke Jones, Digital Content Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine 

From October 29-31, 2024, professionals who operate, maintain and design industrial compressed air, vacuum, blower, nitrogen generation, process cooling and HVAC systems gathered at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA, for the 6th annual Best Practices 2024 EXPO & Conference. The event featured two tracks of conference presentations and panels.

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1888 Mills Saves $140,000 in Energy Savings and Maintenance Costs

By Ian Barnard, Ingersoll Rand® Compression Technologies and Services

After getting its start manufacturing cost-effective products to the healthcare industry, 40 years later, 1888 Mills has become the fourth largest towel manufacturer in the world, and the largest towel manufacturer in the U.S. With facilities in the United States, Pakistan and Bangladesh, 1888 Mills’ towels are used in almost every corner of the world. 1888 Mills is recognized as a leader in innovation in the textile industry and produces 176,000 pounds of towels per week.
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Controls Upgrade in 10 Plants Saves $977,093 Annually in Energy Costs

By Stephen Parry, Bay Controls

To address a mandate for cutting operations energy usage at facilities by 25 percent without major capital expenditures, a major manufacturing company set its sights on better control of its compressed air systems.  The project, implemented at 10 manufacturing plants over the course of three years, saves the company \$977,093 annually in energy costs – and was completed with zero out-of-pocket costs.
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SHOW REPORT: The Inaugural BEST PRACTICES EXPO & Conference

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Held September 16-19, 2018 in Chicago, the first-ever event drew 750 attendees who came together to learn and share ideas about the countless ways to achieve efficiencies with compressed air, blower, vacuum and cooling systems – and in the process – save energy and improve profitability.
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Profile: Hertz Kompressoren USA

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Bob Groendyke, Vice President and General Manager, of Hertz Kompressoren USA. Hertz Kompressoren USA is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. We’re a premium brand of the Dalgakiran Group Company, a leading international compressed air sales and service producer with a well-established worldwide network. Our parent company was founded in in Turkey more than 50 years ago and currently sells and services machines in 130 countries. Hertz Kompressoren has built a solid reputation by creating and manufacturing high-quality products offered at reasonable prices to satisfy our worldwide customer base.
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Common System Issues Part 1 - Oil-Free Air Compressors Paired with Heatless Desiccant Dryers

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

Many food processing plants are already using oil-free compressed air at a low-pressure dewpoint. This has required the use of two-stage oil-free screw air compressors, centrifugal air compressors and other technologies, as well as regenerative dryers of one type or another. The most common oil-free air compressor in industry is the two-stage “dry screw” machine and the most common regenerative dryer type is the heatless type. These are combined in many food processing, pharmaceutical, and high-tech plants.    
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Measuring Performance of Installed Air Compressors

By Thomas Fischer, SUTO iTEC

Measuring the Free Air Delivery (FAD) of an air compressor can be challenging. With a proper flow meter and some mathematics this task is manageable. This article sheds some light on how to select the flow meter and summarizes parameters to be considered in the FAD measurement task.
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The Vital Role of Specialized Compressors in Helium Recovery

By Stelios Flessas, J.P. Sauer & Sohn Maschinenbau GmbH

Helium is a precious noble gas that has become invaluable for leak detection, as well as cooling down magnets in medical equipment. This is why consumption of this essential industrial resource is increasing and its price is rising rapidly. To combat a looming shortage of this increasingly scarce resource, new methods of helium recovery are becoming more important than ever – as are specialized compressors for the same purpose.
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Piping and Ventilation Guidelines for Proper Air Compressor Installations

By Atlas Copco Compressors

In an ideal world, we would all have plenty of space, time and money to create the perfect compressed air system. In practice, we have to balance our ideals versus what we can actually accomplish. Compressed air systems take considerable forethought and planning to achieve a perfect install; however, we can use some key takeaways from this article even if we are ever faced a less than ideal installation. Remember to keep the compressors cool, minimize piping pressure drop and to allow sufficient room around the equipment for service.
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The ITER Project Builds on Sauer Helium Compressors

By William Koester, J.P. Sauer & Sohn Maschinenbau GmbH

A spectacular vision is gradually becoming reality in Cadarache in the south of France. Modeled on the sun, the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) fusion system uses nuclear fusion to generate energy in order to secure humanity’s supply of electricity. One of the biggest challenges is the high temperature inside the reactor. Technology by Sauer Compressors is a key factor in cooling the reactor. The manufacturer has supplied the world’s largest system for helium recovery.
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