Effective Tips to Pick the Best Point of Use Accessories
Compressed air systems come with several complexities. Engineers need to ensure that the compressed air system maintains pressure from the compressor discharge to the actual point of use.
A well-designed air compressed air system shouldn’t have more than 5 % pressure drop of the compressor discharge pressure, measured from the supply side to the point of use
What causes pressure drops?
There are a variety of reasons behind what causes pressure drops in the compressed air systems. Any form of hindrance, constraint or coarseness in the air compressed system can cause disruption in the air flow and lead to pressure drops. The reasons for pressure drop can be divided into two parts: air quality components and air distribution. The air quality components comprise lubricant separators, aftercoolers, moisture separators, dryers and inline filters. The highest pressure drops happen due to problems in the air distribution systems. These problems occur because of the incorrect size or leaked hoses, piping tees and elbows, tubing, quick disconnect couplings, filters, regulators and lubricators. Bad quality of piping and accessories is another reason that causes significant pressure losses in the compressed air systems.
Why is it important to control the pressure drops?
It is extremely significant to control the pressure drops in the air distribution systems. Failure to do so will lead to more increased energy bills, and decreased productivity and performance.
A compressed air distribution system is said to be working at optimum level if these three things are looked after properly: maintaining low pressure drop from the compressor to the point of consumption, no leakage or dripping of gas from the distribution piping and effective separation in case a compressed air dryer is not installed.
All these three things are associated with the main pipes, and if they are taken care of properly, it can ensure ideal supply of compressed air throughout the system – saving the business hundreds and thousands of dollars which would have otherwise gone in the form of inefficient air distribution, unexpected leaks and drips, and even rebuilding the distribution system from scratch.
It is significant to spend a good amount of time in the airline distribution system’s designing, and dimensioning to ensure it works efficiently and provides great compressed air supply in the long run.
In case of large pressure drops sometimes, the air is controlled by increasing the pressure of the compressor from 7 bar(e) to 8 bar(e), which is 1 bar extra pressure meaning 7% extra energy consumption.
How to control pressure drops?
It is important to control the pressure drop to ensure that the air compressor system is functioning at an optimum level.
Air compressor system needs to be carefully designed, installed and maintained to minimize the pressure drops.
Air treatment components which include aftercoolers, moisture separators, dryers and filters should be chosen after much consideration to ensure that they release minimum pressure drops even in the maximum operating conditions. Maintenance of air treatment system is prime importance. Clogged line filters can increase pressure drop substantially, bypassing of these filters can affect air quality issue.
To avoid fluctuations in pressure drops, it is important that you pay special attention to the designing of your pipe system, especially the areas where the air consumption take place. You need to ensure that the required pressure is released in a uniform and consistent manner from all the branch pipes to the point of consumption.
This system should ideally be used for all installations, except for the scenarios where the distance between points of large air consumptions and compressors are quite long. In this case, it is recommended to use a separate main pipe.
Typical point of use accessories apart from air treatment equipment inside compressor room are listed below.
- Air pressure regulator
- Moisture separator
- Filter
- Lubricator
- Drain
All these comes in combination of FRL, Filter Regulator Lubricator with inbuild moisture separator and drain. Depending on application requirement combination of Regulator plus Filter with or without lubricator is used in industry.
Application specific air treatment equipment can be used like dryer, dust filter, oil mist removal filters, moisture separator at point of use. e.g. at powder coating plant.
The relationship between pressure drop and point of use accessories
Pressure drops occur inside the connection from the air compressor installation unit to the point of use from where the air is released.
It is extremely important to use high quality point of use accessories because failure to do so can lead to air leakage.
Losing air will increase the pressure drop, and adversely affect the performance of the air compressor system. And that’s the last thing you want as the owner of a manufacturing plant.
What tips to keep in mind when selecting point of use accessories of a compressed air system?
The following useful tips will help you control your energy costs, unexpected fluctuations in the system pressure, and ensure increased productivity.
- Always use full-size pipes for filters.
- Avoid the usage of bushings to trim the length of pipe sizes at threaded ports.
- Use full port valves to minimize the chances of pressure drops and to control energy costs.
- Don’t determine the size of interconnecting pipes based on the connection sizes of the components which include compressors, coolers and filters. Air velocity in connecting and distribution piping shouldn’t exceed 30 ft./sec.
- Make sure that all filters and dryers are installed with gauges. This will help to determine pressure at various points.
- Filters and dryers should be connected with a suitable three-valve bypass which will ensure continuous and consistent plant operation.
- Always remember to thoroughly read the manufacturers’ instruction books to understand how to correctly connect various parts of your system.
For more tips on selecting Piping and Accessories of a Compressed Air System, and reducing pressure drops, contact an Atlas Copco specialist today.