Feature Compressed air
A fresh take on compressed air
A & B Air Systems and Beko Technologies have helped lower costs for a leading European food manufacturer which serves most of the leading high street food chains
T
he quality of compressed air is always an important topic in food production. At one of the manu- facturer’s sites there are two com- pressor systems; the high quality oil free and dried to -40°C pressure dew point for the air which is in contact with the product and a general purpose stream for operation of pneu- matic components which comes from lubricated compressors with filters to 0.01ppm oil carry over and +3˚C pres- sure dew point.
In 2010 the general purpose system was under consideration for replace- ment. The compressors and drying plant were getting on for 20 years old and there was more demand on them as production had grown. Also there were problems of water getting into the pneumatics and there was a signif- icant cost in man hours to fix the prob- lems. It was time to get some ideas about replacements with an eye on reducing overall costs. A&B Air Systems of Wrexham had been the site compressed air services provider for some time so it and others were invited to offer quotations. Graham Read, technical advisor from A&B Air Systems attended site. The easy option would have been to offer a straight like for like replacement but Read felt that there was a better solu- tion. It was time to introduce some of the new technologies that have been
adopted in compressed air systems since the company purchased its system. There had been problems with the compressed air at 3°C dew point and a major consideration on site was reduction of energy costs. The site had been logged and monitored for possi- ble improvements by A&B which had the solution for the compressors with variable speed drive units which only provide the amount of air required to the system and avoids the punitive costs of off load running. For the dryer plant Read consulted with Matthew Harrison of Beko Technologies being aware of their range of zero purge vacuum assisted dryers with the low associated running costs. Harrison attended site and quickly realised that his solution would have to include a very strong return on investment because the dew point needed was only +3˚C realistically.
An Everdry Frav 2 twin column des- iccant dryer with vacuum technology was selected to give a -40°C dew point so that the pneumatics would work as designed saving man hours in repairs and the key factor would be the reduc- tion in energy costs.
The sizing programmes and running cost analyses were carried out and pre- sented to the client. The return on investment had to include all installa- tion costs and was still, at 18 months acceptable to them. The client decided
Beko Technologies T: 01527 575778
www.beko-
technologies.co.uk Enter 313
New technology enhances filter efficiency W
New compressed air solutions from Beko Technologies have helped a European food manufacturer lower its costs
ith the new generation of its Clearpoint compressed-air filter series, the compressed air product and system provider Beko Technoloiges implements the energy saving 3E filter concept also for flanged filters. 3E stands for ‘Energy Efficient Element’. The technology leads to an optimised pressure difference through the
enlarged separation surface at a simultaneously enlarged filter cavity. The user can choose whether they want to utilise the flanged filters with a volume flow of 100 per cent at the lowest pressure differences in an energy optimised manner or whether they employ them, performance optimised, for volume flows which are higher by up to 11 per cent with consis- tently high separation rates and slightly higher pressure differences. With this, the new Clearpoint 3E flanged filters offer economic flexibility at a stable separation efficiency. The central point of the 3E technology is the employment of a highly efficient new filter material which consists of a poly- fibre compound with thermally fused borosilicate and polyester fibres. Through the thermal fusing, no adhesive residues remain between the fibres. Simultaneously, intrinsic particle release, and thus the contamination of the compressed air, is avoided. The oil and water repellent coating of the fibres stands for excellent coalescence properties.
Factory Equipment MAY 2013
on the A&B Air Systems solution for several reasons. They had a long term relationship, their solution looked good on paper and because of the rela- tionship and research carried out, they felt that they could trust the savings calculated. They also liked the build quality of the Beko Technologies equipment. A&B also had the trust rela- tionship with Beko Technologies from past experience. The contract was therefore given to A&B Air Systems. Two years on, the savings are being realised and the client is pleased with the performance of the system, no issues with pneumatics not working correctly and the product has been completely reliable. In fact they were pleased enough to install another Frav dryer on the process system. The exist- ing dryer was due for a desiccant change which is a significant cost and the purge losses were the old industry norm rather than the current day stan- dards of zero purge where possible. Again Read thought “out of the box”. It would have been easy just to do the service work but he again discussed with Harrison at Beko Technologies. Another logging and review of possi- ble improvements was carried out. New calculations were made giving again an acceptable payback and a new order was placed. The new dryer has been installed and commissioned. A&B Air Systems and Beko Technologies believe that customers will be retained on a long term basis if they come up with solutions that are focused on site issues and cost effec- tive. The Frav dryers for example were the highest capital cost but could be proved to be the correct solution.
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