Reducing Plant Air System Failures, Part 2

The controls of plant air systems are often taken for granted. Do you have calibration procedures for these controls? Does your plant have qualified personnel to perform those procedures? Who calibrates the pressure gages and other instrumentation? What test equipment does that person use? An electrician typically isn’t trained for this work. Do you have an instrument technician who is?

For many plants, it makes sense to outsource the plant air compressor maintenance program. Consider just the problem of maintaining the dryers and filters. Here again, we get into a specialized trade partly because these units typically work with a refrigerant. The refrigerant pressures must be measured by a qualified technician using calibrated test equipment.

If outsourcing is the answer at your facility, don’t shop for someone to do an ala cart list of tasks. Instead, look for a firm that does compressor maintenance with a complete program that includes the recommended cleaning (drains, cooling surfaces, etc.). Industry guides and the compressor system manufacturer can provide these recommendations. Be sure to include ultrasonic testing of the air distribution system.