Compressed Air Technologies

VMAC has released the UNDERHOOD40 – Van Series for 2022 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans with a 2.1 L turbo diesel engine. This latest UNDERHOOD40 rotary screw air compressor is engineered specifically for 2019 to 2022 Sprinter vans and produces up to 40 cfm of continuous air at 100 psi (150 psi max). “As customers upgrade their […]

In the compressed air world, the hottest thing in the market lately has been the introduction of variable speed drive controlled compressors. Being hot (as in popular) is good — but being hot as in temperature is not so great. These units, if installed appropriately, can stabilize the air pressure, and save significant amounts of […]

At this week’s National Fluid Power Association event, the annual International Economic Outlook Conference, Donna Ritson of DDR Communications shared results of an industry survey done for PMMI that looks at the future of robots and cobots for automation. Ritson’s firm had discussions with the leading robot manufacturers, robot suppliers, and integrators in the industry…

Thermal mass flow meters are excellent devices to use when measuring compressed air flow. These devices use a hot wire anemometer method of measuring the velocity of the compressed air in the pipe. Two probes are used, one heated and the other not, and are inserted into the compressed air pipe. The flow of air […]

Have you heard the story of the Gimli Glider? An Air Canada flight ran out of fuel on July 23, 1983, at an altitude of 41,000 feet, midway through the flight. The cause? It was a mix up of pounds and kilograms when calculating the weight of fuel to load for the flight. (Give it […]

Your equipment controls can sometimes tell you some good stories if you observe carefully. And sometimes tell of problems. Consider two thermal mass cycling air dryers installed in a foundry. Thermal mass cycling dryers are designed to reduce the energy consumption of the internal cooling system by turning off and on (cycling) the refrigerant compressor […]

It is very common in an industrial facility to have compressed air blowing applications installed at various locations to provide cleaning of sensing eyes and scanners.  But it is important to keep in mind that this blowing demand can add up quickly — especially if there are many of these applications installed within the plant. […]

A wood products company had a two-compressor system installed on a mezzanine. Under the compressors and dryers were the piping and storage receivers. Each tank and each compressor had timer drains installed to expel the condensate that forms when the compressed air cools in the compressor aftercooler, piping, and storage vessels.  The outlets of these […]

Despite years of warnings — and the development of OSHA standards — there are still many dangerous compressed air blow wands in service at facilities throughout the world. Countless injuries and even deaths could have been prevented if safer devices were used or the blowing eliminated altogether. Fig. 1 shows a wand used to clean […]

The 2022 edition of VMAC’s State of The Mobile Compressed Air Industry Report has been released, sharing fascinating insights from mobile air users. “We are pleased to release VMAC’s latest research on the mobile compressed air industry,” said Tod Gilbert, President of VMAC Global Technology Inc. “There is a lot of uncertainty with global events […]

If you are shopping for a refrigerated air dryer, it is a good idea to consult the Compressed Air & Gas Institute (CAGI) published data from the manufacturer before you buy. If you buy a non-cycling air dryer, the unit will consume about the same power no matter what — even if the associated air […]

Compressed air is often disregarded as a common utility in factories, but risks are high with pressurized air running through pneumatic hoses. Learn how to use these tools safely. Contributed by Mindy Schoeff, Marketing Communications Manager and Ron Hibbler, Applications Manager, Proportion-Air Compressed air is nearly ubiquitous in factories. It’s part of the power behind everything […]

A recent question received by email: I need some help from you regarding air leak calculation. We just purchased a new air leak detector that calculates leakage flow.  We have high air leakage in our LPG bottling plant and our leak detector showed a flow of 9130.2 L/S. If we convert this to CFM then it will total […]

By Ron Marshall A wood products manufacturer decided to save money by hiring a small service company to maintain its compressors. The company had minimal experience in repairing compressors, but agreed to do the job. The company didn’t have parts available to replace the faulty controls on the two screw compressors — so they did […]

By Ron Marshall A building products company had a compressed air system that featured one large 1,500-cfm compressor and three smaller ones. The compressed air flow had grown to a point where the large compressor could only be turned off during shutdown periods; when it was turned off, the plant pressure would collapse. The large […]

When a 40 bar turbo compressor situated within an internationally renowned British-based producer of soft drinks broke down, it was faced with two choices: repair or reconfigure. Choosing the latter, the producer found that the old proverb ‘as one door closes, another opens’ proved true. Founded in the late 1930s by an entrepreneurial chemist, Britvic […]

A press operation used a pulse of compressed air for cleaning operations for 10 seconds, once every 10 minutes.  The compressed air flow to the press during the cleaning was 400 cfm, a quite significant flow, and data logger measurements of the air compressors found that each time the blow happened, a 150-hp compressor would […]

Contributed by Mike Kreklau, Technical Sales at Tsunami Compressed Air Solutions Downtime and inefficiency don’t have to be your production line’s worst enemy. You want shop equipment that comes with no strings attached — no downtime and no maintenance. Maybe that’s a pipe dream, but there are ways to fix many air-related symptoms of an inefficient […]

The operators at a lumber mill were having production problems in two of their machines.  Annoyingly, critical sensing eyes were getting blocked by occasional pieces of bark as the logs went by.  After enduring this for quite a while the maintenance department finally took matters into their own hands. The plant had a welding department, […]

Are you still using open ended compressed air blowing?  Are these blowers simply controlled by a ball valve?  Did you know these tools can turn into dangerous uncontrolled projectiles if accidently dropped when the valve is wide open? They cause noise pollution and present a risk of eye injury when chips of debris are sent […]

Many industrial sites measure their compressed air quality, or think they do.  When asked to show the dew point of a system with refrigerated air dryers, the compressor operators will typically point to the air dryer display, not knowing that the reading is not really dew point, but the temperature within the air dryer itself.  […]

A large foundry had four large 200-hp air compressors that were water-cooled and were having overheating problems.  The units were capable of inlet modulation control,  where the inlet valve of the compressor closes off the intake to control the output flow.  Use of this control mode reduces the flow output of the compressors and the […]

A building products company purchased a compressor with 1,520 cfm capacity to help with the increased load after a plant expansion. Various dryer sizes were available, but one sized at 1,600 cfm was selected, rather than choosing the next size up, to save purchase costs. Shortly after installation, the production machine operators started complaining about […]

During a compressed air assessment, a service provider was reviewing the total capacity of the storage receivers for his report.  Having adequate capacity helps make the compressors run more efficiently and saves energy.  During his checks, he spotted a strange color on one receiver safety valve.  On closer inspection, he noticed that the pressure relief […]

A facilities manager at a building products plant attended a compressed air efficiency seminar sponsored by his local utility. He learned about optimizing air compressors, filters, dryers, and piping. He discovered how to arrange to have a baseline taken of his compressed air system to assess its efficiency. He discovered the excellent savings he could […]