Compressed Air Best Practices - October 2008 - (Page 13) Focus Industry AUTOMOTIVE TRANSIT | 10/08 | System 3 — Paint Line and Breathing Air Due to the pressure problems in the plant, the plant paint lines were split off the main plant system at some time in the past and fed by a separate independent 100 hp load/ unload compressor. A 400-gallon storage receiver was installed, but due to its small capacity and a high pressure differential across the system filters and refrigerated air dryer, the unit rapid cycled causing it to consume significant power even though the system was on average lightly loaded at about 20% capacity. Two other check valve protected storage receivers were installed to protect the painting lines against momentary lowpressure events. This was working correctly. This air system was also a potential source of extra air during peak loading. End Use Audit As part of the audit, a review of the various plant compressed air uses was done to determine if there were any opportunities for compressed air demand reduction. This is a time consuming but necessary process that is essentially a thorough point-by-point review of every end use that is connected to the compressed air system. Each use is assessed for possible performance improvements and/ or compressed air use reductions. A number of opportunities were found: p Paint booth filters and compressed air piping were undersized causing excessive pressure drop. This caused the painting operations to be more sensitive than normal to plant pressure fluctuations and forced the plant pressure higher, causing higher compressor energy consumption. 13 http://www.mcintireco.com http://www.mcintireco.com
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