Benefits of a Compressed Air Audit
Compressed air systems have become a pivotal component in a wide range of industries, from manufacturing to healthcare, primarily due to their versatility and efficiency.
These systems, often referred to as the ‘fourth utility’, are integral to operations, but their management can be complex, warranting proactive monitoring.
This is where a compressed air system audit comes into play. It serves as an essential tool for system optimisation, providing a comprehensive analysis of an air compressor’s function and efficiency, revealing areas for potential improvement. Audits also help ensure compliance with ISO 8573-1:2010 standards, guaranteeing the highest air quality classifications for food and beverage industries and pharmaceuticals.
Air audits are critical for maintaining system health and pave the way for significant energy savings. By assessing the size and output of your compressed air system, the audit service helps ensure your system is effective and economical, reducing unnecessary energy consumption and operating costs.
Table of Contents
Understanding Compressed Air Audits
A compressed air audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your entire air system, focusing on air pressure levels, energy consumption, airflow, and overall performance. By analysing system dynamics, the audit helps identify areas for improvement, such as air leaks, improper air filters, or inefficiencies in air dryers.
A key part of the audit is leak detection. Even minor leaks can waste up to 30% of air produced, overworking compressors and driving up operational costs. Advanced tools, like ultrasonic detectors, pinpoint these leaks for immediate correction.
Advanced ultrasonic detectors and thermal imaging tools now enable faster and more precise identification of leaks, improving correction efficiency.
Additionally, audits assess air quality to ensure your system complies with ISO standards and detects contaminants like oil or moisture, which can affect equipment performance and product quality. It is important to note that ISO 8573-1 air quality compliance ensures safe operations in critical sectors such as healthcare and electronics.
In short, a properly conducted air audit offers significant benefits, such as increased efficiency, reduced energy waste, and lower operating costs, ensuring your system is optimised for both the short and long term.
Cost Savings and Energy Efficiency
Control Gear’s air audit services are instrumental in uncovering areas where energy is being unnecessarily expended, consequently leading to significant cost savings. An audit can reveal the overall efficiency of your system, pinpointing areas of concern, and the report includes targeted, effective solutions.
The importance of this type of audit can be substantiated through numerous case studies, which demonstrate that audits often result in reduced energy bills, also enhancing system efficiency.
The audit results present a comprehensive overview of your system’s performance, making the case for the necessity of air energy audits.
Besides the clear financial advantages, air audits also contribute significantly to environmental conservation. By reducing energy usage, audits help lower greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainability.
They identify potential energy savings and, as a result, decrease the energy consumed, making them an effective solution to increasing energy costs. This cuts back on utility costs and reduces peak demand, ensuring a more sustainable future. Specific measures, such as installing variable speed drive (VSD) compressors, can reduce energy usage by up to 50% when properly implemented, aligning with sustainable energy goals.
System Reliability and Performance
Compressed air audits play a paramount role in extending the life of your compressed air systems. Through a detailed analysis and data logging of the system’s parameters, audits identify potential inefficiencies and rectify issues before they culminate into costly repairs or replacements.
Companies like Control Gear and Atlas Copco offer the expertise necessary to conduct these audits, ensuring that your compressed air equipment is running at maximum efficiency. Additionally, advanced monitoring solutions such as SMARTLINK provide real-time insights into system performance, enabling proactive adjustments to ensure optimal operation.
Also, the importance of audits in guaranteeing consistent system performance cannot be overstated. Monitoring variables such as air pressure (psig or bar) and flow rate (CFM) while conducting an audit can provide a comprehensive understanding of the system’s operation.
This can prevent unexpected breakdowns by highlighting areas of potential improvement and suggesting optimal equipment configurations. As such, an audit may just be the solution you need to minimise energy costs and extend the life of your compressed air system.
Safety and Compliance
Compressed air audits are essential for maintaining safety in industrial facilities. By identifying potential hazards, such as overworked compressors running at high capacities or leaks in the system, audits help prevent accidents and ensure the well-being of employees.
The audit can tell you a great deal about the overall health of your system and the risk factors present.
Also, audits are critical in ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations.
A full audit includes an analysis of the data on:
- The amount of energy used
- The quality of the compressed air
- The impact on your energy bills
The information aids in aligning with regulatory guidelines and significantly improves the process and quality control in an industrial setup. For instance, compliance with ISO 8573-7 ensures microbiological purity of compressed air in critical applications such as food packaging and medical uses.
As a result, a thorough understanding of ambient air conditions and their influence on compressed air energy usage can be achieved through proper auditing.
Leak Detection & Fixing
Leak detection is a key part of maintaining your air system’s efficiency. Even small leaks can cause up to 30% energy loss, leading to increased operational costs and accelerated wear on equipment. Leaks typically occur in joints, fittings, and ageing pipes due to corrosion, rust, and vibration, which can create pressure point issues within the system.
A comprehensive audit often uses tools like ultrasonic detectors to identify inefficiencies in the system and locate leaks. Combining this with advanced software for visual leak mapping enhances detection accuracy and repair prioritisation. Fixing these leaks not only improves air production and air pressure levels but also leads to significant savings by reducing energy waste and lowering the compressor’s workload. For instance, sealing a ⅛ – inch leak at 100 psi can save hundreds annually.
Integrating leak detection into regular maintenance routines ensures your system continues to run efficiently. A properly maintained system can reduce costs, extend equipment life, and avoid issues that may lead to downtime. Centralised controllers and real-time diagnostic tools like SMARTLINK ensure continuous efficiency and optimal performance. A properly conducted audit can determine areas for improvement, enhancing your compressed air system’s performance while cutting costs.
Customised Recommendations for the right compressor
Our audit generates a comprehensive report that includes a detailed analysis of your compressor’s current operating performance and efficiency.
The Atlas Copco AIRScan process illuminates the impact of factors like controls and overall design, associated costs, and functioning of the air compressor. The findings within this report offer a clear picture of any existing issues, enabling you to rectify poorly designed elements, reduce your carbon footprint, and save money and energy in the long run. The AIRScan also identifies potential for energy recovery, ensuring excess heat generated by compressors can be repurposed, further enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability.
Expert analysis is vital in these audits, as the advice and recommendations offered are not generic but specific to the unique aspects of your system.
The emphasis is on actionable suggestions that effectively address the identified concerns. This approach ensures that adjustments to your control systems, or overall design, are based on empirical evidence and expert insights and aim to optimise your system’s performance, reduce associated costs, and minimise the environmental impact.
Real-World Success Stories – air compressor energy audits
Atlas Copco’s Variable Speed Drive Compressor – After an air energy audit highlighted considerable energy wastage, a manufacturing company implemented Atlas Copco’s variable speed drive compressor. Doing so reduced their energy usage by a significant 35%, showcasing how the right compressor can dramatically cut wasting energy and offer considerable cost savings.
Atlas Copco’s GA VSD+ Compressor – Upon discovering their compressor was working inefficiently and elevating maintenance costs, a textile factory turned to Atlas Copco’s GA VSD+ compressor. The result? A 50% reduction in maintenance costs and a boost in the efficiency of their compressed air system.
Atlas Copco’s AirNet Piping System – An automotive plant, following an audit that revealed the impact of poorly designed airflow, installed Atlas Copco’s AirNet Piping system. This change improved the airflow significantly, minimised pressure drops, and reduced the energy used, leading to a more efficient and cost-effective system.
Another example involves the adoption of the ZS rotary screw blowers by a wastewater treatment facility. This change, guided by audit insights, cut energy usage by 30% and improved operational reliability.
Benefits of a compressed air system audit – Key Takeaways
A thorough and meticulous compressed air audit equips business owners with the critical insights needed to make informed decisions about their compressed air systems.
Understanding where energy is being wasted, how the compressor is working, and whether the right compressor is being used can yield significant cost and energy savings.
As highlighted by the examples above, audits can lead to implementing solutions like Atlas Copco’s variable speed drive compressor or GA VSD+ compressor, resulting in substantial reductions in energy usage, maintenance costs, and wastage.
Regular audits are indispensable for ensuring optimal system performance. They facilitate ongoing monitoring and maintenance, helping to preempt potential issues before they escalate into serious, costly problems. For industries like pharmaceuticals and food production, audits are critical to ensuring compliance with stringent air quality standards, such as ISO 8573-1:2010, safeguarding product integrity and safety.
Audits also provide the opportunity to improve system elements like airflow, as seen with the implementation of Atlas Copco’s AirNet Piping system in the automotive plant case study.
So, regular audits lead to the continual improvement of the system’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Schedule a compressed air audit with Control Gear. Our team of experts will conduct a detailed evaluation of your system, providing insights and actionable recommendations for improvement.
Don’t wait until costly issues arise – schedule an audit today and start reaping the benefits of a well-maintained compressed air system.
FAQ
Why are compressed air audits important for my system?
Conducting a compressed air audit is crucial for evaluating the whole system’s performance. It helps identify areas where air leaks, inefficient equipment, or clogged filters may reduce efficiency. By assessing distribution systems, air pressure, and overall performance, an audit ensures your system runs optimally, leading to energy savings and improved equipment life.
What are the key benefits of a compressed air audit?
A compressed air audit provides several key benefits, such as detecting leaks and inefficiencies, optimising supply and demand, and identifying areas where the system can be improved. The audit can also help prevent issues like dirty air and clogged filters that can reduce system performance, ultimately helping to save you money on energy costs and equipment maintenance.
How does a compressed air audit help improve system efficiency?
A comprehensive air audit uses tools like iiTrak to evaluate the system’s pressure readings, airflow, and storage capacity. By identifying inefficiencies and optimising the balance between supply and demand, the audit helps increase system efficiency, reduce downtime, and ensure that your equipment operates at peak performance.