The cost of compressed air in South Africa has escalated at an alarming rate over the last two years. The need for compressed air (c/air) treatment has also escalated as global manufacturing and quality standards are applied in our country in order that we may compete on the world’s markets.
Plant managers agree that polluted compressed air escalates the leak rates, as well as increasing downtime within a plant. A 10% leak rate on a 160 kW compressor could cost a company as much as R160 000 p.a. Dirty c/air also increases pneumatically driven failure rates, let alone the issue of air standards for c/air in contact with food or pharmaceutical products.
It isn’t difficult if you have the right partner
Providing that your c/air supply partner is competent and knowledgeable, treating c/air should be relatively straight forward. It revolves around identifying the standard of c/air treatment that is required for your plant or process. Then, all that is required is to install an air treatment chain that will provide c/air at the standard required, with minimal energy wastage, the lowest system pressure drop and with acceptable secondary after care costs.
Your supply partner should at least be capable of:
• Assisting you identify your required standard of c/air according to ISO 8573.
• Specifying the equipment required.
• Supplying the c/air treatment package if required.
• Designing the c/air piping system.
• Verifying the end result at commissioning stage.
• Monitoring the system for consistent performance.
• Providing after care support 24/7.
The process is not overly complicated, but surprisingly the procedure is rarely followed in South Africa. Constant loss of skilled staff, lack of supplier training and lack of planning often leads to less than satisfactory c/air treatment results. The selection of your supply chain partner is critical. Review the company, its capabilities and its involvement in the c/air treatment industry, and seek references from its client base. Package deals may offer a solution, however many air compressor suppliers offer little in the way of aftercare support.
Buying simple dryers from compressor companies may be an option, however the bigger and more complicated sets should be sourced from specialist air treatment suppliers. The more the cost of failure increases, the more effort should be deployed to select your specialist supply chain partner.
Monitoring is vital
A 160 kW air compressor with only a simple maintenance plan will cost about R1,6 million per year if operated 24/7/360, and this is only based on R0,84 /kWhr. (This calculation ignores the purchase and installation costs.) On average, raw untreated compressed air costs around R0,10 to R0,12/m³.
Once past the installation process, it is vital that the c/air is permanently monitored as any treatment equipment malfunction will quickly affect c/air quality. If or when a plant gets infected by water and oil from a faulty air drying system, it takes weeks to dry down to the correct dew point again. Filter element failure, due to lack of system monitoring or use of look-alike products, may have the effect of contaminating the compressed air pipe distribution system for life with compressor oils and pollutants. Oils do not evaporate from piping systems, only water does. Therefore, when oils infect a system the spillage can lay in the pipe network for years.
A CSM2G is an air system monitoring solution that utilises a Wi-Fi based on ZigBee data transmission, which enables plant engineers to monitor the following on the c/air system;
• C/air flow and pressure.
• C/air dew point.
• Oil carry over and particle counts.
• Power consumption and water flow.
• Velocity.
• Air leak losses.
With the ability to expand the CSM2G system as needs grow or budgets allow, this cloud based system is also easy to use. Software upgrades occur seamlessly and the cloud data storage ensures security and continuity. Data can be fed to a scada system as well as the engineers {C or laptop. The visual layout on the home page is tailored to mimic the client’s own system and alarm set points are adjustable by the user. The system is manufactured by CS-iTEC and distributed by Artic Driers International, It ensures that compressed air standards are monitored and met continuously, and giving plant engineers the assurance that their c/air systems are meeting the required international standards and plant requirements.
Alternatively, there are simpler and lower cost systems. For example an S331 display and data logger can accept multiple probes for flow, pressure, temperature, power and dew point. It can log data and transmit it to a local computer system via 4-20 mA output, Modbus or Profibus.
Also available now are locally mountable low cost S305 dew point plug and play systems that allow dryer performance monitoring at a glance and also provide a 4-20 mA output. Particle counting and oil carry over monitoring is available with data downloadable to graphic formats, perfect for users that demand total control of c/air quality.
ISO 8573 standards and other interesting c/air related materials are downloadable at www.articdriers.co.za
For more information contact Allen Cockfield, Artic Driers International, +27 (0)11 420 0274, allen@articdriers.co.za, www.articdriers.co.za
| Tel: | +27 11 420 0274 |
| Email: | paul@articdriers.co.za |
| www: | www.articdriers.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Artic Driers International |
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