Large capital purchases, such as compressors, require careful planning and financial forecasting. After deducting the initial cost, many organizations must still pay to the principal. Although they usually include these line items in their budgets, they often forget to consider another key cost: annual maintenance. Although maintenance accounts for only 5% to 10% of the annual compressor-related costs, if you forget or delay maintenance, these costs may increase exponentially, resulting in unexpected and costly Downtime. Compared with the entire life cycle cost of compressor ownership, maintenance expenses are minimal.

Why Preventive Maintenance?

Preventive maintenance aims to discover and cease expensive repair costs and system downtime before mechanical failure spreads. This type of maintenance includes daily, weekly, monthly, monthly, quarterly or yearly inspections of all system components to ensure that everything is normal.

In some cases, preventive maintenance involves low-cost measures that can help avoid higher-cost situations. For example, when a slight crack is found in the compressor belt, immediately replacing the belt helps your company prevent sudden belt breakage, the compressor stops working, and stops production after the problem has been identified and measures taken. Steps necessary to restore the system to normal operation.

What if preventive maintenance is ignored?

Every manufacturer recommends preventive maintenance, but many companies are too busy to bother for maintenance. However, failing to perform recommended maintenance will affect more than the compressor itself, and problems will trickle down to all areas of your operation and will result in following issues to be dealt with:

• Repairing Cost

Maintenance aims to prevent any expensive repairs in the future, and the manufacturer recommends regular and preventive maintenance for some reason. Failure to perform proper maintenance may cause problems throughout the operation. Simple things such as increased oil retention may cause the compressor to block or overheat, affecting other equipment below the pipeline, resulting in expensive maintenance costs and a lot of downtime.

• Productivity Loss due to Downtime

If your operations experience severe downtime, you may be forced to find new delivery methods and pay higher fees for overnight shipping speeds, so as not to cause serious delays to customers. In addition, you will have to rush to order new parts in order to restart operations, which will result in a rapid increase in expedited shipping costs.

• Higher Utilities Cost

If proper maintenance is delayed, the utility cost of operating the compressed air system will increase significantly. In the long run, simple things like replacing filters at recommended intervals will help your compressed air system use energy efficiently, thereby saving utility costs. If you find that utility costs are increasing without increasing usage in the system, it may be time for maintenance.

• Rented Equipment Cost

If the entire system fails due to delayed proper maintenance, it is likely that new equipment will need to be rented to avoid a complete shutdown. These rental costs will increase rapidly, and every day you rely on the rental equipment to keep the system running, your business is bearing the rental costs.

• Reduced Efficiency

Overall, when the system is down, you must perform emergency maintenance on the entire system, and you will lose operational efficiency. Even if you can continue to work while performing maintenance, the system will not operate optimally, resulting in lost productivity and possible lost revenue.

It is therefore highly recommended to follow the regular and preventive maintenance procedures mentioned by your air compressor system provider, to ensure that you do not encounter any of these problems. Otherwise, you may end up losing more money on the air compressor.

Sakoon Pneumatics are experts in Compressed Air for 40 years. Sakoon offers Services Contracts, Compressor Health-Check Visits, and Genuine Replacement Parts for compressors of all brands. It has one of the best Air-End Refurbishment facilities in Pakistan. Moreover, given unexpected situations and peak-season demands, Sakoon offers Rental Fleet of variety of products related to Compressed Air Systems.

Summer is almost there, which means that the temperature all around will rise. The high temperatures will put a lot of pressure on your air compressor. If the necessary precautions are not taken, it may cause production loss and machine failure. For industrial air compressors, extreme weather may play a key role in overall efficiency. Some of the most common problems we see when servicing equipment are air leaks, blocked drain pipes and dirty filter systems. To avoid some of these problems, we have organized 7 tips to help you prepare an air compressor for summers

Beat the Heat with Sakoon

1. Check the Drains

When the temperature becomes higher, the level of condensation in the air compressor usually increases. This is problematic on many levels, because moisture can affect the performance of parts in pneumatic tools and air compressors.

If the drain fails and water starts to accumulate, it may disrupt production or cause the machine to shut down. Check the discharge port to ensure that once the temperature rises, the discharge port can work normally to cope with the increasing demand on the compressor. Make sure that no excess water passes through, and that the drain pipe can handle more water flow from the air compressor.

2. Clean Air and Oil Filters

Filtration plays a huge role in improving the efficiency of the air compressor. As long as the air and oil are sufficiently filtered in a given entire cycle, it can be expected that the air compressor will produce a constant volume of cold air, and the overall performance of the machine is stable. However, if the filter is clogged with dust, the pressure may drop, forcing the air compressor to work harder to perform only basic functions. In essence, energy is consumed during this process, and parts wear faster.

If dust is allowed to accumulate in a few seasons, the decline in air quality may be a warning sign that road costs will be higher in the future. To avoid these problems, please check the filter regularly and clean it if necessary.

3. Clean the Coolers

During summers, the surrounding air is hotter than normal, it will affect the performance of pneumatic tools and machines. It is essential that the air compressor itself maintains a stable temperature throughout the year, including the hot summer season when the outdoor temperature soars above 30 degrees Celsius.

To prevent the air compressor from becoming hot in summer, the cooler must be cleaned every year when the temperature starts to rise. If the cooler is blocked, it may hinder its ability to keep the compressed air system functioning properly. To prevent this from happening, please perform the following steps later in the spring:

• Check the cooler for dirt, debris or mist residue
• Remove any dirt deposits present on the cooler

4. Check the Ventilation

Just as you put the air filter and oil filter in the air compressor, you must also check the ventilation of the room where the machine is located. To prevent the ambient air from becoming too crowded, please perform the following steps regularly:

• Check the ventilation holes for dust deposits
• Remove dust accumulation on the vent
• Check the HVAC system for dust accumulation and defects

5. Adjust the Water Cooling System

When you cool the air system with water, the water itself must be cool to achieve the desired effect. When the weather gets warmer, the incoming water should be colder. Like air coolers, water-cooled air compressors also require enough cold water to offset the warmer months of the environment.

To ensure that the water maintains a sufficient temperature, perform the following steps before each wet work cycle:

• Check water temperature
• When the ambient temperature rises, adjust the water temperature if necessary

6. Identify and Fix Air Leaks

Regardless of the season or outside temperature, air leakage is the ultimate enemy of compressed air systems. Summers happened to see more leakages though. Air compressors can have a fully functional filtration system without condensate and flowing oil, but if air leaks occur anywhere between the machines itself, in piping system or at pneumatic tool, performance will still lag.

When a leak is formed along the compressed air system, the performance of the tool will decrease and the operating efficiency will also decrease. If the operator does not know the source of the problem, the first solution usually thought of is to simply increase the system capacity to compensate for the lagging power which leads to increased capital and electricity costs.

7. Change the lubricant

Summers bring high heat and humidity which can shorten the life of the oil by as much as half. Changing lubricant regularly is must as it several key functions:

• Lubricated bearings
• Absorption / removal of compression heat
• Form a liquid seal on the air end to effectively compress
• Prevent contact between metals
• Removes particulate contaminants

Important Information Regarding Coronavirus COVID-19 & The Use of Compressed Air

7 Expenses That Every Manufacturer Should Track

A common mistake when purchasing an air compressor is making a selection based on capital cost alone rather than reviewing the total equipment ownership costs. Since energy consumption and equipment maintenance can quickly drive up ownership costs, it is critical to understand what contributes to these expenses at your facility. To get started in your cost savings journey this year, you must first identify the following costs associated with your system.

Energy Costs

According to Energy Star, 76% of compressor ownership costs go towards the electricity required for operation. This paired with the rising cost of energy means the goal at your facility should be delivering the required demand of air with the lowest amount of energy possible. To calculate compressed air energy costs, you must first track rated power, motor efficiency, service factor, running hours, and energy rate.

1. Power & Motor Efficiency
   The percentage of electrical input that the motor uses to power the air compressor is referred to as the efficiency rating. Although there is a large range of efficiencies, generally the older and smaller the compressor motor is, the less efficient it is. As an example, a 100 HP premium efficiency motor typically has a motor efficiency rating at around 96%. Review your motor manufacturer’s datasheet to find this efficiency rating.
2. Service Factor
   Service factor is a rating applied to a motor that determines how far it can operate over the rated horsepower without damaging the motor. For example, a service factor of 1.15 means the motor can operate at 15% over the rated horsepower, 1.20 equates to 20% over, and so on. It is not a good practice and potentially damaging to continuously operate motors above the rated load in the service factor area. When reviewing compressor capacities, bear in mind some manufacturers promote a full load that utilizes a portion of the service factor.
3. Running Hours 
   The running hours of your unit is the amount of time it is operating at a given power value, usually on a per year basis. This assessment tends to be grouped by labor shifts due to air demand changes between shifts. Continuous running machines typically operate 8,000 hours per year.
4. Energy Rate
   The energy rate for your area may be obtained from your local power company. For reference, the average power cost per kW is PKR 12 in the Pakistan.

Maintenance Costs

Even the most reliable machinery requires maintenance to keep functioning at maximum efficiency. Since maintenance requirements vary between compressor technologies, it is essential to have a firm understanding of what you are spending on consumable products, condensate removal, and AirEnd replacement.

5. Consumables
   Consumable products include anything that needs to be replaced at regular intervals such as filters, separators, and oil. The rate at which these need serviced varies wildly based on the type of compressor you use. For compressors that are not oil-free, it is important to understand the downstream filter replacement costs as they can quickly add up over time and result in pressure drops that require additional energy to overcome. Oil-flooded machines also require oil to be changed every 6-12 months, while oil-free compressors can last 2-3 years on the minimal oil they need to operate. For operators looking to extend the time between changes, full synthetic oil is an ideal solution and offers less downtime and maintenance costs.
6. Condensate Removal
   While both oil-flooded and oil-free compressors produce condensate, that of oil-flooded units makes a water/oil mixture which either must be properly disposed of or use a filtration system to separate the oil from the water. Proper condensate disposal could result in costs of $50,000 per year and is something to take in consideration when making a compressor decision.
7. Airend Replacement / Refurbishment
   As compressors age, replacing the Airend is often an option to improve overall performance. Depending on the technology, some Airends are designed to last 3-5 years while others are rated for 20 years of continuous operation. This replacement cost may be upwards of 70% of the original equipment price, so it is important to get a professional opinion and to weigh your options. Instead of replacing an Airend, it is more economical to get it refurbished.

Collecting and tracking these figures may seem at first a daunting task. However, once you present to management the thousands of rupees a year you are saving on compressed air alone the initial work will be well worth it and contribute to a healthy bottom line at your company.