US Cotton
AirmaticsTM Averts Plant Shutdown In Us
Overview
An AIRMATICSTM customer is a leading US manufacturer of health and beauty cotton products in the Americas.
Having grown exponentially since it first opened its doors in 1983, the firm’s production lines and manufacturing capabilities have expanded in order to meet growing demand for its comprehensive range of cotton products.
When a significant issue with its Charlotte plant’s compressor regulation mechanism threatened to halt production and cost the firm substantial amounts of money in downtime, CMC’s AIRMATICSTM solution was used to identify the problem and enable the firm’s service provider to intervene before it was too late.
A forensic approach to air compressor diagnostics
The service provider, Engineering Sales Associates (ESA), wanted to improve its offering, better understand its customer’s plant performance profile and deliver additional competitive advantage, so it decided to install AIRMATICSTM – a simple cloud-based air compressor monitoring, performance and control solution that provides real time data, analytics and insights at the push of a button. In doing so, it immediately armed the manufacturer with the ability to monitor its compressor assets 24/7.
However, it wasn’t until AIRMATICSTM identified a critical high-pressure issue that would have led to the plant’s shutdown within nine days that the technology demonstrated an ability to avert disaster.
The AIRMATICSTM way
Analysis of the plant’s pressure data made possible via AIRMATICSTM revealed a defective regulation mechanism. The compressors’ kWh output indicated that the compressors were not properly synchronized, which was creating substantial inefficiencies and generating high pressure within the system.
After recommendations from ESA, the manufacturer agreed to install the AIRMATICSTM COMMAND & CONTROL platform, which enabled ESA to build on the data provided by AIRMATICSTM by delivering additional intelligence and insights relating to the entire air compressor system and install the infrastructure required to automatically regulate and optimise the air compressor system’s performance.
As ESA was able to visually comprehend exactly what has happening via the easy-to-use platform, it was able to make the necessary adjustments without the system needing to be shut down.
AIRMATICSTM – at a glance
AIRMATICS™ is an end-to-end solution that includes:
AIR-TAG and SMART-TAG
Brand and age agnostic monitoring devices that can monitor the performance of one or multiple air compressor assets
UNITAG and COMMAND & CONTROL
Monitors the health and performance of the entire compressed air system – all from one AIRCLOUD interface. Users can remotely monitor and manage a group of connected assets from anywhere onsite – even if that onsite location isn’t local to the air compressor station.
The results
Since installing AIRMATICSTM the US manufacturer has:
- Narrowly avoided a plant shutdown, which would have had a significant impact on production
- Identified energy saving opportunities and optimised its entire compressed air system by making decisions relating to its compressors based on real time intelligence and data provided by the AIRMATICSTM monitoring capability
- Reduced compressor wear and tear and prolonged maintenance periods across its entire compressed air assets by using the AIRMATICSTM COMMAND & CONTROL platform to optimise performance and ensure that compressors only run when required
- Reduced compressor-led energy bills
- Reduced the risk of downtime by having real-time access to its compressed air network’s data and being able to spot potential issues before they arise
- Been able to proactively rather than reactively manage its compressed air assets
- Helped the manufacturer further align itself with carbon reduction and improving its sustainability performance
“Using the data collected, it was clear that the pressure readings at each local controller were reading different pressures at the same time. This caused one machine to load when the other was actually unloading – the machines were effectively fighting each other. Now that we are controlling the system using one pressure it has leveled out and we are seeing energy savings.”
Engineering Sales Associates’ Systems and Controls Specialist