CompAir for your Industry

This page shows three very different applications for compressors and demonstrates the diverse way in which compressors can be used.

#1-High Pressure Piston Compressors
CompAir goes Supersonic - Until recently the Department of Engineering at Leicester University in the United Kingdom was the proud owner of an HCSA9 Reavell compressor. Peter Barwell of the Department said he has always been impressed with the performance of the 40 year old unit and also with CompAir’s past service record.

However, the building of a new research facility and increasing difficulty in obtaining parts for the HCSA9, meant that the time had come for a replacement. With a requirement for 157 m3/h at 1000 psig, CompAir quoted the recently released 5337 compressor to be the new air source for the Department’s three wind tunnels.

Operating at between 0.5 and 1.2 Mach, the sub- and supersonic wind tunnels are predominantly used for testing turbine blades. As part of their third year project work, the students measure shock waves around the turbine blades, using cameras, hot wire anemometers and other means.

The wind tunnels are also used for the testing of valves for North Sea oil rigs. Commissioned in May 2005, the package comprises of the 5337 air compressor, filter system, condensate collection and desiccant dryer which gives a dew point of –40ºC. The dryer is a particularly important part of the package due to the problem of “pitting” that was previously created by moisture in the air hitting the models in the wind tunnel at high velocity.

Eight air receivers are filled with a total volume of 7m3 providing sufficient air for the wind tunnels. Each receiver is approximately 600mm diameter and three meters long. Laid out vertically in two banks of four, they reach a height of approximately 40ft. When empty, the estimated fill time is less than 3 hours.

#2-Hydrovane Compressors
Silence in the tomb - Silence is not a quality often associated with theme park rides, but quiet running compressors from Hydrovane are helping to build the atmosphere of terror on the newly up-graded Tomb Blaster ride at Chessington World of Adventures located in Surrey in the United Kingdom. Tomb Blaster is an action-packed interactive adventure ride in Chessington’s ‘Forbidden Kingdom’. Riding in abandoned mine trucks, visitors armed with laser guns do quick-fire battle with the tomb’s ancient inhabitants as they speed through the tomb.

Hydrovane and CompAir distributor PSI of Crawley, provide maintenance services on a wide range of pneumatics equipment at the theme park and on a regular visit, service engineer Mike Green noticed that the piston compressors used on the Tomb Blaster cars were noticeably noisy.

He says: “The compressed air is used to operate the lap locks on the cars and the piston compressors, while effective, were very noisy and did not do much to contribute to an authentic tomb-like atmosphere. We suggested that the technical team try a Hydrovane model - HV01. The result was a 100% improvement and the Chessington team was so impressed that they bought another five machines so that all of the cars on the ride could be converted.”

#3-Rotary Screw Compressors
Jaguar drives down compressed air costs - Jaguar Cars, the luxury car maker, has saved a substantial amount in energy costs by replacing piston compressors with a more efficient combination of fixed and variable speed compressors from CompAir.

The decision to change came after the existing compressors at Jaguar’s Whitley Engineering Centre were data logged to assess their energy usage. Although 18 years old, the piston compressors were operating reliably, supplying compressed air for a variety of functions across Jaguar’s design and development facility at Whitley, Coventry.

With 3,000 people working on the site, the compressed air system serves a variety of general functions including operation of rolling roads and a range of air tools. Because of the system’s reliability, there had been no question marks over its performance until it was suggested during a routine service visit by one of our distributors, that a modern system could offer considerable energy cost savings.

While Jaguar’s Whitley Engineering Centre (left) does not have a vast requirement for compressed air, it does need to be available on demand 24 hours a day, so the system is always running.

We pointed out that the existing system was simply not cost effective in energy terms because with large variations in demand it was incurring major wastage by continuously generating the output to meet peak requirements. To prove the point, the system was data logged to show the savings that could be achieved with a new system. The sum was substantial so from Jaguar’s point of view there was no question about replacing it. Like any major energy user, the company has seen baseload wholesale electricity price rises of over 50%, so it represented simple good practice to reduce those costs, as well as looking at ways of conserving energy as part of its corporate environmental responsibility.

The system recommended was a combination of a CompAir L45SR variable speed drive compressor together with two L37 fixed speed machines with a SmartAir intelligent management system. The SmartAir controller constantly monitors demand to select the appropriate combination of compressors to meet it. In operation at Jaguar, the speed regulated compressor provides the base requirements, with its variable speed switched reluctance drive system matching variations in demand throughout the working days. It is only when demand peaks that the fixed speed compressors come into play to provide the additional output.

Also included in the package is a CompAir CS Range static oil/water separator, essential to meet environmental regulations which call for oil content of condensate to be reduced to legal disposal limits. By reducing the oil concentration in the collected condensate, a larger volume of clean water – up to 99.9% of the total condensate – can be discharged safely into the environment. With a CompAir Assure Plus service plan in place, Jaguar has also seen a substantial reduction in its annual service costs, which have virtually halved. This combined with the energy cost savings will mean a payback period of under two years for the new compressors.

CompAir - Intelligent Air Technology