Compressed air costs around R0,13 per cubic metre. A typical 160 kW air compressor will consume around R1,3 million a year in power when providing a basic plant air service plan operating 24/7/365. In a recent compressed air leak survey carried out by Artic Driers at a major production facility, the audit engineer found compressed air leaks accountable for costs of some R600 000 per annum. The cost of the leak detection service was recovered in days.
There are many types of ultrasonic leak detection devices, from inexpensive to high-end equipment that is capable of performing air and vacuum leak detection, steam trap malfunctions, as well as bearing ultrasound checks. The equipment used by Artic Driers during auditing is sophisticated and provides the cost-per-leak, as well as the actual compressed air volume lost. Tag numbers are allocated to each leak, and a page-per-leak report is generated on an iPad using a purpose-built program. When the company audit team leaves the site, 85% of the report is already complete and ready for download from the cloud.
Should the accuracy of a report be challenged, the audit engineer will place an inline flowmeter in the supply when the facility is off-line. Any air flow past the probe is then posted as leaks. The ultrasonic air leak detection gun is then used to ‘chase down’ these leaks in the plant, after which the two figures are compared. Invariably there is less than a few percent difference between the results.
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