Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1366075
May 2021 / 37 strong, but often the manufacturer's parts price markup is excessive and the recommendations don't always align with your needs. For example, would you be surprised to learn that there are non-OEM lubri- cants on the market that last 50 percent longer than the OEM lubricants and cost 60 percent of the price? As a former product manager for a major compressor company, I can attest that there are plenty of non-OEM lubricants you don't want in your compressor. How- ever, there are several that are equal — and in some cases, superior — to OEM offerings. As another example, there's an industry movement toward more frequent replacement of air ends (which compress the air in rotary screw compressors), with OEMs recommending major overhauls every 24,000 to 32,000 hours on machines that should last up to 50,000 to 60,000 hours. In one United Kingdom-based plant we're working with, staff is replacing air ends on four or five compressors every year because of this OEM recommendation. The cost for that approaches €100,000 (almost $119,000) per year. However, if the plant were to convert to condition-based monitoring and replace air ends as needed and not on a specific schedule, replace- ment costs could be reduced by at least 50 percent. If the UK plant adopts the audit recommendations, mul- tiple compressors in the facility will be turned off and the overall maintenance cost for air end replacement will be 10 to 20 percent of the current cost. Lastly, for those who are renting compressors, espe- cially diesel compressors, as shown in Figure 5, call an year. But because these operators tried to fix their issue via pneumatic duct taping, the company was wasting $34,000 per year. Finding the excess costs There are three primary areas of potentially wasteful spending within a business: operating costs, capital cost avoidance, and productivity issues, as shown in Figure 4. Operating costs. Operating costs include power (energy), repair and maintenance costs, and rental costs, the last of which may not apply to every plant. Energy is often the focus of compressed-air system improvements, but the solution to this poorly defined problem is to buy a new variable-speed drive (VSD) compressor, right? What the original equipment man- ufacturers (OEMs) don't always share is that, in many cases, modifying the control settings of the existing equipment can save 50 to 80 percent of that energy without costing you a penny. You already know which is the better return on investment (ROI). Please note, this isn't to say that the VSD compressor isn't the right choice. Sometimes a VSD compressor is the way to go, but the technology is often sold to clients who aren't made aware of all the available options, leading to a poorer ROI. Repair and maintenance costs are another area of potential savings. Often, plants are tied into OEM service and parts. There's little doubt that the equip- ment manufacturer's service capabilities are generally FIGURE 5 Systems with rental compressors often provide the fastest paybacks of any compressed-air improvement project. Standard compressor Diesel compressor