Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008 - (Page 36)

| 05/08 | AUTOMOTIVE ASSEMBLY DOING WHAT IS RIGHT FOR CUSTOMERS What changes have you seen in Chicago’s industrial market? A conventional sequencer with cascade controllers operates on the “wet” side with a much wider pressure band in order to accommodate systems with multiple compressors, and account for clean air treatment equipment with the anticipated pressure drop, as well as ensure the required system pressure. System controllers, like Sigma Air Manager, monitor the actual system pressure with a single precision sensor while taking into account the clean air treatment equipment and the actual pressure drop, effectively managing and maintaining the required system pressure from the “dry” side. In a four compressor system (e.g. 25 to 50 hp each) that requires 100 psi operating pressure, a cascade controller would allow a 100 psi to 120 psi pressure band. A master system controller like SAM would only require a 100–103 psi band. At $0.08 per kW hour, and 8–12 hours per day, that would result in annual savings of $2,000 to $15,000. The market has changed quite a bit over these past twenty years. The big steel mills and manufacturing facilities have left the city and the suburban to more rural areas, or even out of the country. We still have a solid food industry and warehousing industry. Transportation is a significant industry be it railroads, airports or automotive. We have a lot of cars here of course, so the automotive aftermarket business is strong. How has the automotive aftermarket changed? Car dealerships, auto repair and collision centers have all gotten larger and more sophisticated. They used to all be small “mom and pop” stores and now they tend to be larger companies. Allstate Insurance now owns a series of body shops, for example. Now, instead of talking to an owner, we may be talking to a manager of multiple facilities making decisions for standardized systems. The requirements and expectations for air quality and reliability are higher from collision repair businesses these days. They cannot afford down-time due to a compressor breaking down nor the extra work involved dealing with the effects of paint fisheyes caused by poor air quality. Management understands that investing in high quality compressed air systems makes financial sense. The costs of not doing so are too high. A shift has occurred from piston compressors to rotary screw compressors. We used to have to explain the differences, but now most buyers understand the benefits. Rotary screw packages are quiet and vibration free. As the quality requirements go up, more and more people in the automotive repair business have opened their eyes to these packages. We’ve been selling rotary systems in this market for twenty years now. We had to do a lot more educating in the beginning. Now the benefits of rotary screw compressors are more obvious and well known. We also work with equipment suppliers that sell automotive aftermarket products. These people sell other related products into that market and it is an efficient way to reach a lot of facilities. We then supply the technical service support. What are the trends with automotive manufacturing? An automotive plant here in the Chicago area has centrifugals and rotaries. They have been moving towards smaller rotary screw compressors to assure steady air pressure and air quality for labs and small assembly areas. They attempt to optimize the overall air system by supplying lower pressure (80 psi) to conserve energy for their general air use. They install point-of-use rotary screw compressors from 5 to 300 hp to handle higher pressure and air quality needs in specific areas. These departments are isolated from the main utility and can count on stable system pressure (100 psi or higher) in this way. What kind of air treatment are the car manufacturers using? We normally see refrigerated air dryers for the overall utility air system. Desiccant air dryers are used in the powder coating areas. We normally recommend the heated desiccant air dryers in these situations with purgesaving controls. We see breathing air purifiers in the paint areas as well. Breathing air purifiers include a carbon monoxide catalyst that converts 36 www.airbestpractices.com http://www.airbestpractices.com

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Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008 Contents From the Editor Utility-Air News The Compressed Air Audit of the Month Pneumatics Real World Best Practices Delta Industries: Doing What is Right for Customers Delta Industries: Six Truths You Need to Know about Really Putting the Customer First Power Supply Industries Resources for Energy Engineers Wall Street Watch Advertiser Index Job Market

Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008

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