Unfortunately, leaking air is extremely common in almost any compressed air circuit no matter how well-sealed or maintained it is. This is simply a fact of life for anyone who has to work with this kind of equipment. As a result, you’ll probably end up spending a fair amount of time finding and repairing compressed air leaks.
Fortunately, replacement parts and gear from the experts at SMC Pneumatics can help to drastically reduce the risk of these problems and get you right back up to speed once they’ve been found and corrected. Those who need parts to keep their machines going longer can always turn to our organization to find things that fit perfectly. That being said, you’re going to need to identify the leaks first before you have a chance to plug them up.
How To Spot Compressor Leaks In A Pneumatic Equipment
In the average manufacturing plant, around 30 percent of the total energy consumed is done so in the form of a compressed area. As a result, around 20-30 percent of that expense as a whole is due to leakage and wasted energy. That means its absolutely vital for you to spot leaks before they become a major issue.
Perhaps the most common yet unscientific way to do so is for someone to hear something off. Naturally, this sort of behavior can’t be trained. There’s no way to teach people to spot the right kind of high-frequency hissing sound for a piece of pneumatic gear, so you’d never be able to train this sort of behavior into new staffers. However, experienced individuals will sometimes find a problem just because something sounds off.
It’s a good idea to always keep your ears open and listen to everything going on in your plant. A simple walkthrough might be more than enough to locate several leaks that you can deal with on a case-by-case basis so you’ll be ready to treat any problems that might arise before they become serious issues. In fact, you might even catch a few serious issues in the process.
That being said, you don’t want to trust gut instinct over everything else. You need some sort of technology in place that’s going to be able to find this. Invest in a few tools and check everything to make sure that it’s working properly.
Regardless of how you might have located the issues, your next step will be to repair or replace whatever is causing the leaks.
Fixing Compressed Air Leaks Regularly
Depending on how complex the leak is and where it is, the repair process might not be all that involved. Compressed air issues are normally relatively easy to fix.
You might want to invest in some extra lengths of hose to make new tubing from. That will help to ensure that you always have enough material on hand to treat any issues that might arise. In many cases, quickly replacing a damaged length of tubing could be more than enough to get things working all over again.
You’ll also want to potentially invest in a cutter and some other tools so that you can make these changes. Such tools make it easy to size and install tubing based on the needed length of material you had to run. You’ll never want to forget about the possibility of needing to replace miniature fittings either, so keep these in stock as well.
If there are any lower quality fittings currently attached to the equipment that you’ve been working with, then you might consider this an opportunity for a fairly major upgrade. Decide if you want to install new air compressors or add leak detectors.
Making Upgrades To An Already Established System
Track down each fitting you have and check to ensure that it hasn’t been corroded or suffered any other sort of damage. If you’re regularly experiencing corrosion or any other related issues, then it might be time to invest in an air dryer that can dramatically reduce the continued risk of additional fluid becoming a problem that will break down the fittings that are currently attached to your system.
At the same time, you might want to consider adding a booster regulator or other component that will help control the overall flow. Nevertheless, there’s never any replacement for good quality stainless steel components. Stainless steel features a high degree of chromium as well as other substances that are capable of cutting down on the oxidization that happens when you’re exposing metallic components to moisture.
A few companies have relied on a deferred maintenance policy to deal with their issues. While you might think that this could save money since it lets you keep working with you have, it could actually be unintentionally wasteful.
Air circuits that are already leaking are costing you quite a bit of power since they’re taking more pressure to keep running properly. Over time, this kind of consumption issue can really add up and make your energy bills skyrocket. That can cause major problems for any firm, and it’s certainly not the best way for a business to ascertain sustainability. With all of the focus on energy conservation and reducing the carbon footprint of each company, it’s become perhaps more important than ever to fix these problems quickly.
Eventually, you’re going to want to put together a shopping list of all the things that you’ll need to get to upgrade your systems and get them working again at full capacity. If that’s the case, then you’re going to want to get in touch with a supplier that’s able to provide everything you ask for in the sizes that you need.
Larger workshops often have a staff full of technicians who are on call to repair any problems that they might run into on a regular basis. Smaller organizations don’t have this kind of luxury. While it might not look like the two groups have much at all in common, they do have one thing.
Find The Parts You Need To Fix Compressed Air Leaks At SMC Pneumatics
No matter what sort of organization you work with, you can turn to SMC Pneumatics as a resource to find the kind of gear that you need to keep your machinery running longer than you ever thought before. Many groups deal with custom fittings or odd sizes that can affect energy costs.
Contact us online today and tell us all about the kind of parts that you’re looking for. We’ll make sure to provide suggestions and help you get what you need today. Since we’ve made sure to stock as many different products as possible, we’re able to do our best to get each and every last client the parts they need to get going all over again.