A compressor or a compressed air station puts a strain on the budget, especially in the year of purchase - or at least suddenly, very high costs are incurred in the year, which are then depreciated over several years for tax purposes. After all, every compressor usually does its job for many years. But there are regular additional costs in its life cycle. These operating costs are more or less predictable. On the one hand, the energy costs - in other words, the costs for the electrical current required to operate the compressor - depend on the electricity price and the amount of compressed air generated. They are comparatively easy to plan and easy to argue. Things are different initially when it comes to maintenance and repair, including wearing parts. While the costs of regularly changing the oil and filter are known, unforeseen repairs and downtimes place an undue burden on the budget. But there are opportunities to put the unpredictability into the budget for many years at predictable costs.
In this way you minimize compressor downtimes and avoid production downtimes - at predictable costs:
Your production must be reliably supplied with compressed air, vacuum or gases. A compressor should never fail unexpectedly, otherwise the production will stop or rejects will be produced. But how can this risk - for the company and your finances - be minimized?
1. You can increase your operational safety by investing in a reliable compressor and by keeping redundant machines that take over the compressed air supply during planned and unplanned downtimes. Of course, this will reduce costs.
2. Have your compressed air system serviced regularly. This is necessary to minimize downtime. With fixed maintenance dates, you can plan the downtimes - and a properly maintained system is less likely to fail. For regular maintenance work, you should plan a fixed budget when buying a compressed air system.
3. In order to prevent downtimes in production as far as possible not only in the first years, but also in the future, a general overhaul of the compressor should be considered in good time. At Atlas Copco, for example, operators can “save” the costs for this under a service agreement. The costs for the replacement of core components that are necessary after about ten years are thus distributed over the entire time - and are anchored as a fixed amount in the maintenance budget and can therefore be planned. In addition, the cost of a general overhaul is about 20 percent lower overall if it is recorded in a service agreement with Atlas Copco.
How to plan the budget for your compressed air supply and its maintenance:
To ensure the availability of compressed air generation, operators should conclude individual maintenance or service contracts for their systems. Depending on the scope of the contract, it is guaranteed that compressed air is always available in the right quantity and quality. The basic offer provides the upcoming regular maintenance work, such as filter or oil change, is carried out. In this case, for example, necessary repairs are left out and must be ordered separately. This will result in costs that were not planned in advance and cannot be planned seriously. Nor can costs be calculated in advance, which arise from the failure of a compressor after the warranty period has expired. But what it will cost if your production is at a standstill and you cannot keep your delivery promises, you will probably be able to estimate. You should have an order of magnitude for this risk in mind. With a premium maintenance agreement However, as Atlas Copco offers, you cover all eventualities. It is clear from the start what costs have to be paid monthly or annually in order to completely ensure the availability of the compressed air supply. This agreement extends to all regular maintenance and all repairs and spare parts, from foreseeable wear to completely surprising defects. In an emergency, customers with this full service contract can quickly get one or more rental compressors and can reach a technician around the clock via a service hotline. With the maintenance agreement, companies also purchase a warranty extension for their compressor to five or seven years. And you also save a general overhaul as an option which is due after about ten years. For such a comprehensive contract, annual costs of around 10 percent of the new price of the system must be taken into account. If this amount seems high at first, the full service contract is nevertheless the most cost-effective and at least the best planable and budgetable solution for plant operators who cannot afford a breakdown. With a fixed budget for all maintenance and repair work, the availability and efficiency of the compressed air supply is ensured far beyond the usual warranty period. Those who prefer maintenance only “on call” and then at a fixed price don't just pay a little more; he also has additional costs for the recurring administrative effort - and must expect waiting times. Maintenance and repair as part of service agreements , on the other hand, can be more efficiently planned and organized for Atlas Copco: the service technicians save travel times. Atlas Copco passes this cost advantage on to its customers when they conclude such a contract.
Remote maintenance: Ideal planning and budgeting of the compressed air supply with the Smartbox:
In order to plan the maintenance of the compressors and systems on time, it should be known when the next regular maintenance is due, i.e. when a filter or the oil has to be changed and ideally if and when you might have other problems in the near future. Would that be too good to be true? But it works! Atlas Copco has developed software for this purpose, which is built into the new compressors in the form of a so-called smartbox or as part of the Mk5 electronic control system . The software can process the data from numerous operating sensors installed in the machines. Anyone who uses this service is planning maintenance work on the safe side. The operating data of the compressor are sent to the Atlas Copco diagnostic center, where the operating status of the machines is checked on a daily basis. In this way, problems are identified early before they can lead to failures. The operator of the system or a service technician can intervene proactively. Higher costs due to unplanned downtimes or production downtimes are safely avoided. The integration of the Smartbox significantly increases the availability of the compressors in terms of Industry 4.0. Service technicians can make inspection visits "to the point" or change wear parts according to their condition before they become a problem. The operator himself keeps an eye on his data very easily and is always informed about the condition of his compressed air system. This information, which is provided by the Atlas Copco software Smartlink , also helps to optimize the system energetically. This means that the costs for energy expenditure will remain within the planned framework in the future.
