By Ron Marshall When the phone rang in the summer a few years ago, Ron knew the project would be unusual. A sawmill nearly 1,000 miles away needed a compressed air assessment, but an injured knee made flying impossible. Normally, a project like this would require airports, hotels, and days spent carrying instruments through the […]
Components
Is your compressor room like a sauna?
Contributed by Ron Marshall Richard, the maintenance manager at a plant that manufactures powdered coatings, was used to dealing with heat. The curing ovens in the facility ran hot, and summer months always made the production floor uncomfortable. But one area of the plant seemed especially unbearable β the compressor room. Every time Richard stepped […]
Compressed air fail: The 40-kW wake-up call
By Ron Marshall George ran the compressed air system at his plant for eleven years. If you would have asked him last spring how it was doing, heβd have shrugged and said, βFine.β Two screw compressors, sharing the load, humming along the way they always had. Nobody calls a meeting about compressed air until something […]
Piab introduces suction cups for high-performance, mixed-item handling
Piab has expanded its suction cup portfolio with the introduction of the BLFF 42 and BLFF 55 cups, the first commercially released sizes in the new BLFF (Bellow Long Flexible Fit) family. BLFF stands for βbellow, long, flexible fitβ and reflects the seriesβ unique combination of reach, stability and adaptability to different objects. The BLFF […]
ControlAir releases type 385 stainless steel filter for harsh industrial use
ControlAir LLC announced the availability of the Type 385 Stainless Steel Filter, designed to provide efficient filtration and high flow capacity for demanding industrial and process control applications. The Type 385 Stainless Steel Filter features corrosion-resistant 316L stainless steel construction throughout the body, housing, trim, and filter assemblies, making it ideal for offshore, chemical processing, […]
Safety is core to proper vacuum design in automation
Contributed by Michael TuoheyΒ β’ Regional Marketing Manager, North America, Piab In modern manufacturing, safety is a core design requirement. As more processes become automated and rely on vacuum, the way vacuum systems are engineered has a direct impact on the safety of people, products, and assets. Piabβs approach places safety at the center, combining […]
Is your air dryer quietly wasting energy?
Mark had always considered himself a capable plant manager. He knew his way around the facility, understood the production demands, and trusted his maintenance team to keep things running. As far as he was concerned, the compressed air system was doing its job. The air was dry, production wasnβt complaining, and the compressors were humming […]
New three-finger soft gripper for delicate and irregular shape handling
Piab announces the launch of the piSOFTGRIP 40-3, a new three-finger soft gripper that extends the companyβs popular piSOFTGRIP family with larger, stronger, and more versatile handling capabilities for delicate and irregularly shaped items. Designed for food, consumer goods, and light manufacturing applications, the piSOFTGRIP 40-3 enables automation of products that are traditionally difficult to […]
Stop the silent thief: Save money with compressed air efficiency
Walk through almost any manufacturing plant and youβll hear it, the steady hum of compressors, the hiss of air tools, the pulse of production. To many, it sounds like business as usual. But to someone who understands compressed air systems, that same sound can also mean one thing: Money leaking away! Compressed air is often […]
Are you paying something for nothing? Check your compressor control!
By Ron Marshall In many industrial plants, the real cost of compressed air isnβt just the air being used on the production floor, itβs the energy consumed when the compressor is running β but not producing useful air. Choosing the wrong operating mode for your compressor can be surprisingly expensive. Itβs a bit like sitting […]
