The world would be a terrible place if none of us were educated. We’ve all felt the magic that happens when we’ve discovered some simple concept in the classroom, some little fact that was value, but that we didn’t know, that once realized saved us hours and hours of unproductive struggle. Knowledge is power, and this rings true in many areas, including compressed air system optimization.
I’ve been fortunate to have been part of the Compressed Air Challenge for many years and for the last few years have been involved in facilitating training sessions all across the country of Canada. Many other trainers have been working in the USA doing a similar thing. Compressed Air Challenge has known for years that the training they give makes a difference. The results of this training are reported in a document called Evaluation of the Compressed Air Challenge Training Program. If you want to see how much power a little knowledge can give your company, review the document.
Recently, I have been thrilled to have been invited to travel overseas to the country of Malaysia to present an international compressed air training curriculum for the United Nations Industrial Development Organizations (UNIDO). While visiting we have provided training to industrial users and have started to develop some expertise in the country in compressed air auditing. As part of these missions we were asked to develop Case Studies that showed the effect of the training. I’m pleased to report that, like in the USA and Canada, excellent results have been achieved by the attendees of the international compressed air awareness training.
In once recent case study a manufacturer of automotive parts realized that his five modulating air compressors did not need to be running full time, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, because his production ran only two shifts, five days a week. The training he received reminded him of the high costs of compressed air and the inefficiency of modulating compressors. The manufacturer also realized that he also likely had a big problem with leaks, since he had no detection and repair program.
Using this new awareness the training attendee took action. After carefully studying is system he shut down two of his five compressors, and his complete system on weekends. He and his staff also found and repaired over one hundred significant leaks. The results were that he achieved a 51 percent savings in energy costs equivalent to about 200,000 per year.
School yourself and your people by sending them to a Compressed Air Challenge Fundamentals of Compressed Air Systems seminar. Our calendar of trainings is here.