How to detect compressed air, gas and vacuum leaks and find hidden profits

June 28, 2021 | Energy Efficiency, Industrial Imaging, Fundamentals, Power Management, Troubleshooting

For industrial plants and equipment, compressed air, gases and vacuum systems are an important source of power conversion. Compared to other resources such as electricity, compressors are used in a much simpler way and can be found in today's factories. They can drive machines, things, robots, lasers, product transfer systems, and so on.

However, many compressed air, gas and vacuum systems are subject to wear and tear and improper maintenance, which can amount to a lot of waste – leaks that cannot be eradicated. These leaks can be shady and can occur at the back of the machine, at connection points, in overhead fixed pipes, or in cracked or worn hoses. Waste can increase quickly and may even lead to downtime.

The cost of wasting air is high

According to the United States Department of Power, a 1/8-inch (3 mm) gap in a compressed air line can constitute up to $2,500 in additional costs per year. The United States Department of Power estimates that an average poorly maintained United States plant could waste 20% of its total compressed air capacity due to a leak. The New Zealand government estimates in its Policy Sustainability project that system leaks may account for 30 to 50 percent of compressed air system talent. Rapid detection of compressed air, gas, and vacuum leaks directly contributes to the profitability of finding hiding. Air leaks can also lead to costly costs, rework, downtime or quality issues, as well as increased maintenance costs.

In order to compensate for the loss of pressure due to leakage, operators generally overcompensate by purchasing compressors that exceed the standard requirements, which requires a significant investment and leads to higher power costs. System leaks can also cause the system pressure to be too low, which can lead to problems in equipment that runs on compressed air. This can lead to production delays, unplanned downtime, quality issues, reduced service life, and increased maintenance due to unnecessary compressor cycles.

For example, the maintenance manager of a United States manufacturer said that if one of their pneumatic torque things had a problem with a lack of pressure, it could lead to a defective product. "Equipment with improper torque, whether it is a lack of torque or excessive torque, can lead to product recalls. This also leads to requirements devoting more man-hours to what should be a very standard process," he says. "It's a lot of money lost in profit and lost equipment. In the worst-case scenario, we also experience the loss of demand due to the inability to deliver. ”

It's no surprise that utilities, jobs, and governments all think that compressed air systems have the potential to deliver cost savings. Leaks lead to waste. Correcting these breaches allows operators to save money and prevent utilities from having to run more systems than they need.

Finding and correcting breaches is not straightforward

Many plants and equipment do not have leak detection programs. Finding and correcting breaches is not straightforward. Quantify waste and acknowledge cost requirements are implemented by power experts or consultants who use power analyzers and recorders to audit your air system. By systematically accounting for the annual cost savings that can be achieved by eliminating leaks, they can develop a strong business plan to implement such projects.

Power audits of compressed air systems generally require joint work, governmental and non-governmental arrangements (NGOs) to be conducted. The Compressed Air Challenge (CAC) is one of those partnerships, a voluntary collaboration of these types of collectives. Its only policy is to provide product-neutral information and educational materials to help work towards higher sustainable power in the generation and use of compressed air.

Why is the ultrasonic leak check power-low

Unfortunately, the practice of mainstream leak detection is appropriately primitive. A long-standing method is to listen for hissing and spray soapy water in areas where leaks are suspected, in fact, sizzles are not heard in many environments, and soapy water can make the scene messy and possibly pose a slip risk.

The specialized thing used to find compressor leaks is an ultrasonic wave static detector, which is a portable electronic device that can identify high-frequency movements associated with air leaks. Typical ultrasonic detectors can help find leaks, but they are time-consuming, and repair personnel typically only use them during planned downtime when more time needs to be spent on maintaining other critical machines. These devices also require the operator to be close to the equipment to find leaks, which makes it difficult to use in hard-to-reach areas such as ceilings or behind other equipment.

In addition to being time-consuming, using soapy water or ultrasonic detectors to find leaks can also be a safety concern. Climbing ladders around the equipment or getting underneath the equipment can be risky.

Revolutionizer in compressed air leak detection

What if there was a leak detection technology that could recognise the location of a leak at a distance of 50 meters in a noisy environment without shutting down the equipment? Fluke has developed an industrial imager that can do just that. Industrial maintenance managers call the Fluke ii900 Sonic Industrial Imager a "revolutionary" in the discovery of compressed air leaks.

The new industrial sonic imager can detect a wider range of frequency plans than traditional ultrasonic equipment, and it uses the new SoundSight™ technology to provide enhanced visual scanning of air leaks, similar to the popular methods used by thermal imaging cameras

The ii900 consists of a sound array consisting of a number of miniature, ultrasensitive microphones that detect sound waves and ultrasound waves together. The II900 identifies the source of the sound in the direction of a potential leak and then uses a proprietary algorithm to interpret the movement as a leak. The effect produces a SoundMap™, a colorful map superimposed on a visible light map that pinpoints the location of the leak. The final result is a still drawing or live video on a 7-inch LCD screen. The ii900 can save up to 999 drawing files or 20 video files for documentation or compliance purposes.

Larger areas can be scanned quickly, which helps to locate leaks significantly faster than other methods. It can also filter intensity and frequency planning. A team at a large manufacturing plant recently used two ii900 prototypes to find 80 compressed air leaks in a single day. The maintenance manager said it would have taken weeks to uncover so many leaks using traditional methods. By quickly finding and correcting leaks, crews also saved potential downtime, and in this plant, production talent was lost at an estimated $100,000 per hour.

Find the location of the breach:

connector

hose

pipeline

Joint

Threaded fittings

Quick disconnect couplings

FRL (Filter, Regulator, Smoother Combination)

Condensate collectors

valve

flange

Seals

Pneumatic fixing slots

How much air are you wasting?

The first step in controlling leaks in compressed air, gas, and vacuum systems is to estimate the leakage load. Some breaches (less than 10%) are expected to be presented. Anything beyond this plan is considered waste. The first step is to acknowledge your leakage load at the time so that you can use it as a benchmark to compare improvements.

A robust way to evaluate leakage loads is based on your control system. Let's say your system is equipped with start/stop controls to start the compressor only when the system is not being used – at the end of the day or after work. Several readings of the compressor cycle are then taken to acknowledge the uniform time for the loading system to reach the unloading situation. In the absence of equipment, the system uninstall is caused by a leak.

Leakage (%) = (T x 100) ÷ (T + t), T = Load time (minutes), t = Unload time (minutes)

To estimate leakage load in a system with a more messy control strategy, place the pressure gauge in the downflow (V, in cubic feet) of the volume, which contains all auxiliary gas storage tanks, mains, and piping. In addition to leakage, bring the system to normal operating pressure (P1, in psig) without the need to use the system. Pick the second pressure (P2, about half the value of P1) and measure the time (T, in minutes) for the system pressure to drop to P2.

Leakage (free air in liters per second) = [(V x (P1 – P2) ÷ (T x 101325)] x 1.25

The 1.25 multiplier corrects the leakage to normal system pressure, thus taking into account the fact that the leakage decreases as the system pressure drops.

Effective correction and repair of leaks can significantly reduce the cost of air-dependent enterprises. The broad company can not only save power by correcting leaks, but also improve the production level and extend the service life of the equipment.
How to detect compressed air, gas and vacuum leaks and find hidden profits

How to detect compressed air, gas and vacuum leaks and find hidden profits

How to detect compressed air, gas and vacuum leaks and find hidden profits

Sections viewed

Contact

working hours