Compressed Air Best Practices - June 2008 - (Page 23)

Focus Industry PHARMACEUTICALS | 06–07/08 | Are there many compressed air audits being done? Airequipo does do some audits. Customers like Pfizer and HP, have been able to access some DOE funding and they have trained their own people on how to do ultrasound compressed air leak detection. We are becoming more and more of an outsourced solutions consultant for our customers. Puerto Rico is still getting accustomed to audits — some simply want you to do it for free or credit the audit work against equipment purchases. This is hard to do for free because obviously in order to understand compressed air demand a lot of hours must be spent measuring the system. Acceptable payback ROI periods vary significantly from customer to customer. I attended a seminar, where Hewlett Packard will prioritize projects with ROI’s of less than nine months while PepsiCo will do projects with 24 month ROI’s. We are making progress though and we are training our customers to study their electric bills and figure out the cost of their compressed air system. We are also working with them to help them avoid peak usage periods. Airequipo offers strong training programs right? Yes. Airequipo has been a leader in conducting paid training seminars at the customers’ site. We do a specialized seminar on their air compressors and spend some time in their parts books identifying maintenance items. We have professionalized this training and the operators come away with the ability to operate the controls of the machines and to do some maintenance functions. The maintenance staffs are interested in doing this in Puerto Rico. Right now, we are trying to get certified as a resource in the curriculum of continuing education for engineers. The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) has approached us to do some training for their student chapter, some of which are working already at internships at pharmaceutical plants. What is the history of Airequipo? The company was started in 1961 so we have a long history! Our roots were in supporting the agricultural and construction industries through equipment rental and service. Since 1989, Airequipo Inc. has focused on being an industrial equipment distributor for compressed air system products to the manufacturing plants of Puerto Rico. The pharmaceutical industry here, which accounts for the majority of those plants, has been our primary focus. Airequipo Inc. has worked very hard to standardize the pharmaceutical plants with oil-free air compressors. Today, we have 90 to 95% market share. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have competition. Nothing is farther from the truth. Puerto Rico’s relationship with the U.S.A. makes it possible for other companies in the mainland to compete against us. The fact that some of these pharmaceuticals have headquarters in the U.S.A. makes it natural for them to contact their local distributors. But the fact that we are celebrating this year our 47th anniversary speaks of why we are still offering our services. We focus on being competitive and servicing our customers with the utmost professionalism. 23 3 http://www.mikroporamerica.com http://www.mikroporamerica.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Compressed Air Best Practices - June 2008

Compressed Air Best Practices - June 2008 Contents From the Editor Utility-Air News A Pharmaceutical Compressed Air System Audit Talking Dew Point Puerto Rico, Pharmaceuticals and Airequipo Inc. Oil-Free Rotary and Oil-Free Centrifugal Compressor Comparison SMC: Managing Energy and Dew Point in Pneumatic Systems Utility Grade Compressed Air Systems Training Calendar & Product Picks Wall Street Watch Advertiser Index Job Market

Compressed Air Best Practices - June 2008

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