Plant Services - February 2008 - (Page 53)

By Andrew Sheaffer mizing the air used. However, FRLs often are in poor operating condition and should be repaired or replaced. First, check the bowls on the ﬁ lters. If any are cracked or leaking, replace them immediately. If any are full of condensate, drain them and put a system in place that drains them as needed. If the manual drains on any bowls are cracked open or wide open, close them and inform operators that they shouldn’t be left open. Also, ensure that connections on the FRLs are sound and not leaky. Second, make sure the pressure gauge is readable and functioning. Air auditors see too many regulators with the housings broken oﬀ and gauges that are ﬁ lled with condensate, reading zero pressure, not responding when the regulator position is changed, and corroded. Replace any regulator that doesn’t display downstream pressure accurately. Once your regulators are functional, make sure they’re set to deliver an air pressure that matches the end-use speciﬁcations. Frequently, regulators are set much higher than they need to be. ey might have been set that way initially or, more likely, operators decided they weren’t getting enough air pressure and cranked up the regulator. Common machine operator thinking is, “If I can make 20 widgets a minute with 30 psig, I can make 40 widgets with 60 psig, right?” Alternatively, pressure might have been low one day and operators cranked up the regulator without remembering to reset it. One lesson we’ve learned is that regulator settings drift up, but never come back down. How do you check that regulators are working properly? Whenever we perform an audit, we connect a digital pressure gauge equipped with a quick-disconnect ﬁtting to verify air pressure on every piece of equipment. Delivering more pressure than end users need increases air consumption. An air cylinder speciﬁed for 30 psig will use 70% more air at 60 psig, 230% more at 90 psig and 300% more at 120 psig. All air-powered equipment works this way – the more pressure delivered, the greater the air used. Auditors call this phenomenon artiﬁcial demand. Furthermore, delivering more pressure than needed can be a safety hazard, especially for hand tools. If you ﬁnd that F .PLANTSERVICES. 53 http://www.plantservices.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - February 2008

Plant Services - February 2008 Contents From the Editor Letters The PS Files Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works Asset Manager: Why Six Sigma? Technology Toolbox: Ensuring a Calm Response Cover Story: Best Practices Awards Lubricants: A Slick Success Story Motors: Reliable Torque Compressors: Before You Call for Help Web Hunter: Exploiting Intellectual Capital In the Trenches Product Picks Classifieds Fast Facts Energy Expert: Energy, Climate and Food

Plant Services - February 2008

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