From its facility on Long Island, Automatic Data Processing's (ADP's) Investor Communications Services Division runs a specialized printing and direct mail operation that prints, mails and sorts time-sensitive investor documents ranging from proxies and prospectuses to periodic reports. Beyond the employees and equipment, the facility and systems that make ADP one of the nation's largest business services firms, there is one simple element without which the 432,000-sq.-ft. plant doesn't run.
"Pretty much everything automated in the printing and mailing operation is pneumatic. Without compressed air, we don't run," said Alex Rivera, Facilities Supervisor at the ADP plant.
Notwithstanding its importance, the plant's compressed air equipment at the Long Island plant hasn't always been its most dependable feature. Plagued by oil leaks, mechanical breakdowns and poor design, the four-compressor system finally reached the breaking point when ADP initiated plans to expand its facility. The original compressors included two 50 hp and two 100- hp modulation-type machines without sequencers, stuffed together into a crowded room that made servicing the machines very difficult. The problems were especially severe during the three-month proxy season of March, April and May, when the four compressors had to run continuously at 100 percent to meet the plant's compressed air demand.
With the company's facility expansion plans triggering a parallel need for additional air production, Rivera called on Atlas Copco's New York distributor, Iacono, Inc., for help. Iacono, Inc.'s Rich Piquette described what he found, "The compressor room was so cramped you couldn't get from one end of the room to the other without coming in through another door."
For Rivera, better use of space was a hoped-for result, but the first, most important goal was the dependability of the compressed air system. ADP asked for a quote from Iacono for one 100 hp compressor, then for two compressors, and finally, for an entire compressed air system.
The subsequent system proposal, developed in conjunction with Atlas Copco's application specialist Will De Luca, included three 100 hp base compressors and one 100 hp variable speed drive (VSD) compressor. Explained De Luca, "Three base compressors are controlled by a sequencer that automatically runs one, two or all three in the most efficient manner possible. A VSD machine serves as a trimmer so compressed air production exactly equals demand. As the VSD unit reaches maximum output, the sequencer turns on another base machine, and the VSD trims the minor ups and downs."
