Compressed Air Audit

[ARooneyRIP]

Doing a compressed air audit and they want to know the size of the leak 1/64- 1/32- 1/16- 1/8- so on... how the heck do they expect you to know what size the air leak is coming from a fitting?

 

[gerhardl]

Not possible in my opinion!

What you could do is to measure pressure loss in an isolated part over time. (The isolated part could be the complete system or a part).

This would give you the average volume loss at a certain pressure, which again could give you a comparison to the loss through a circular hole with a certain diameter.

In addition to the fact that even a 1 or 2 mm hole will give you a considerable loss at a normal pneumatic pressure, I also completely agree with you.

Any loss costing money is a waste if normal sensible good maintenance, improved layot and correct equipment could prevent it. (Remember also to calculate cost of downtime, not only pressure production!)

To try a pun: Its' not the size of the hole that counts, but the amount of mony you have to put into it!

 

[ornerynorsk]

Let me guess, accounting or admin came up with that gem ?!?! A leak is a leak, and one usually starts with the big ones first. First hand experience though, a leaky system costs tons in the electric bill and in excess maintenance.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[TVP]

Not sure if you have done any background research, but here are a few links with good information on the subject of compressed air, leak assessments, etc.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/bestpractices/compressed_air.html

http://www.compressedairchallenge.org/

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/industry/compressed_air1.pdf