The Cost of Compressed Air: Why Pneumatic Efficiency Matters More Than Ever
With operating costs continuing to rise, UK manufacturers are under increasing pressure to improve efficiency. Higher energy, material and labour costs are putting margins under strain, prompting businesses to look more closely at where waste can be reduced.
For facilities using pneumatic equipment, compressed air should be an important part of that conversation.
Compressed air is clean, versatile and ideally suited to countless automation tasks. However, generating it requires electricity, and inefficient pneumatic systems can consume considerably more energy than is actually required to perform the task.
The challenge is to retain the benefits of pneumatics while reducing unnecessary energy consumption.
Start by understanding where the air goes
One of the biggest challenges with compressed air is that waste can often go unnoticed.
A small leak may appear insignificant, but multiplied across hundreds of fittings, tubes, valves and actuators operating over thousands of production hours, the financial impact can become significant.
Leak detection should therefore form part of routine preventative maintenance. But leaks are only one part of the issue.
Is the system operating at a higher pressure than necessary? Are cylinders oversized for the application? Is compressed air being used unnecessarily for blowing or cleaning? Does equipment remain pressurised during periods when production has stopped?
Each presents an opportunity to reduce consumption.
Correctly sized actuators, efficient air preparation, high-integrity fittings and suitable control technology can all help reduce the amount of compressed air needed to achieve the same productive output.
Monitoring technology can also provide engineers with greater visibility of consumption. Flow sensors and intelligent pneumatic technologies make it possible to identify unexpected changes in air usage and use that information to support maintenance and efficiency improvements.
The principle is simple: before a business can reduce compressed air consumption effectively, it needs to understand where that air is being used and where it is being wasted.
Could we reuse air instead of wasting it?
During normal cylinder operation, compressed air is used to create movement before being exhausted to atmosphere. By that point, energy has already been used to generate and compress the air, so releasing it means that energy is effectively lost.
Camozzi Automation UK is introducing the Pneu-Saver, a new pneumatic energy-saving solution designed to recover and reuse air that would otherwise be exhausted. Developed for double-acting pneumatic cylinders, it can reduce compressed air consumption by approximately 45 % in suitable applications.
This figure has been verified in real-world applications using before-and-after air consumption readings taken with an electronic air consumption meter.
Rather than simply discharging compressed air after each movement, Pneu-Saver recirculates it within the pneumatic circuit, reducing the amount of fresh compressed air required from the main supply.
36 FDPP- www. fdpp. co. uk
Turning Air Savings into Cost Savings