Compressed air systems are an integral part of many industrial applications. Because of this, it’s important to understand how they operate & what to be aware of in order to help you make more informed decisions. With several years of experience to date, we’d like to share with you some of our most important lessons learned along the way.
Lesson 1 – Just because the compressor is off does not mean the purge will stop.
If a compressor turns off for any reason, but the dryer is operating on a fixed cycle with no dew point control, then the purge will usually still continue to be fed from other compressors. While the purge cycle continues uninterrupted, the minute the desiccant has been regenerated an uncontrolled air dryer will continue to consume purge air & effectively waste a significant amount of compressed air even though no air is flowing through.
Lesson 2 – Air dryers use up the most compressed air.
Lesson 1 leads us directly into lesson 2: that air dryers use up the most compressed air in the operation’s entire compressed air system. This definitely holds true for lightly loaded systems where both the compressor and dryer are larger than the actual average loading size.
Lesson 3 – Most of the time it’s better to repair than purchase new.
After performing several air & energy audits in Southern California, we’ve learned that even in extreme scenarios where it might seem the most obvious choice is to replace the system with a new one, it is actually much more cost effective to repair a fault compressed air system than it is to purchase a new one.
Lesson 4 – Regular testing is good practice.
It should almost go without saying, but it’s important to regularly test purge flow to prevent situations in which purge flows are much higher than the rating of the dryer, which would cause significant amount of waste. If the ball valve is misadjusted for any reason, then it will cause the gauge to go out of calibration & this is easily overlooked if the system is not tested regularly.
Q Air-California Can Take Your Compressed Air System to the Next Level!
Having performed compressed air & energy audits for a variety of different industries, we have the knowledge and experience to help you find overlooked areas that may be wasting your time, energy, and resources.
