Knowledge hub

Because most factories depend on it as much as on electricity, water and gas, and unlike those three, almost nobody meters it.

Turning electricity into compressed air and back into work at the tool is only about 10–15% efficient overall. Roughly 85% of what the compressor consumes leaves as heat.

Per unit of work delivered, it is the most expensive utility in most plants. That is not an argument against using it, for actuation and intrinsically safe tooling there is no better option, but it is an argument against wasting it.

Leaks. An unaudited plant typically loses 20–30% of everything it compresses, and a 3 mm hole at 7 bar wastes about 1.5 kW continuously.

Shut the plant down over a weekend with the compressor running and watch how often it loads. Any loading at all with no production is leakage, and the duty cycle tells you roughly how much.

Every extra bar costs roughly 7% more energy, permanently. Most plants run one to two bar above what anything on site actually needs.

Almost never. A blower does the same job for roughly one eighth of the energy. Blowing, drying and cooling with compressed air is one of the most expensive habits in industry.

Kilowatts consumed per cubic metre per minute delivered, measured to ISO 1217. It is the only figure that settles a comparison between two machines, always ask for it at the same pressure.

Take the compressor kW, multiply by running hours and your tariff, then divide by the air actually delivered. Most people are surprised by the answer, which is exactly the point of doing it.

Yes. Operator handover comes with every machine, and we run half-day sessions on leak surveying, pressure setting and reading the controller: usually the cheapest energy project a plant ever does.