Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1366075
36 / May 2021 powderbulk.com itability of the compressed-air industry is built upon expensive solutions for poorly defined problems. The problem that plant managers face is a lack of precise financial information on what a compressed-air system costs and what can be done with the system in a cost-effective manner. Every plant has had multiple experiences with compressor companies trying to sell capital-intensive compressors to solve misdiagnosed problems. This can deter a plant manager from doing the economically smart thing. To illustrate, if a business had a salesperson abusing his or her expense account, the business would have a good idea of that salesperson's spending and how much it should be. This would allow management to take appropriate action. That's just good business. Yet plants often allow an operator to put a $20,000-per-year air lance in a bin somewhere to keep production going without a second thought. Everyone knows compressed air is expensive, but the lack of precise understanding of how expensive it is, combined with where in the process the additional expense occurs, ultimately leads to an abdication of responsibility. Such a nondecision and wasted expense can be seen in Figure 3. This area of an industrial facility (outside the bulk solids industry) was quite hot, so operators rigged up a cooling system (see the red arrows in Figure 3) that cost $36,000 per year in compressed air. Alternatively, air could've been brought up to the area from the floor below with an electric air mover at a capital cost of $500 and an operating cost of $1,000 per FIGURE 4 There are three primary areas of wasteful spending in a plant's process. Financial waste Operating costs Capital cost avoidance Productivity issues Power Quality Throughput The majority of new compressors are oversized or unnecessary Rentals Repair and maintenance FIGURE 3 This homemade cooling system cost the company $34,000 per year.