How are compressed air leaks affecting your business?

What Is a Leak And Where Does It Come From?

A compressed air leak can be defined as an unintentional leak or escape of air from a compressed air-containing pipe or container, to atmosphere. Reasons for air leaks are varied. The most common causes for a compressed air leak are material failure, corrosion or vibration at joints or component junctions within the compressed air pipework of pneumatic systems.  Leaks lead to the use of unnecessary capacity creating artificial demand for your compressors and increasing energy costs.

Negative Effects of Compressed Air Leaks

Compressed air is not free- air leaks in your compressed air solutions can cost you a fortune.  Issues with compressed air pipework can be easily overlooked, which is too often the case, increasing energy costs.

Air leaking from air compression systems can reduce profitability in a number of ways. On average, up to 30% of the compressed air your system generates will be lost as leaks, meaning compressed air can cost more than other site utilities such as water, electricity or gas.

Taking a broader look, compressed air leaks not only directly reduce profit, but may also affect your business productivity.  Drops in system pressure which are caused by air leaks have a damaging effect on the pneumatic equipment in your plant, reducing their efficiency and also reducing their life cycle. Air leaks cause equipment to repeat processes for an extended period of time, forcing air compressors to run for longer which results in additional maintenance requirements and possible increased downtime.

Ways of Reducing Compressed Air Leaks

Ultrasonic Air Leak Survey

Maziak can locate air leaks by using specialist Ultrasonic air leak detection equipment. Each leak found is photographed and tagged with a unique reference number. At the end of the survey, a full report is documented and shared with the site with recommendations as to leak priority, air losses estimated, cost of leakage and recommended fixing methods and costs.

The key however is to fix the leaks found and to regularly repeat this exercise as new leaks will return and it can take a few goes to get leakage down to an acceptable level.

The payback for the site will be measured in months by taking this advice.

Find out more about our air leak surveys here.

Considering the age of your equipment

Upgrading old systems seems like a simple solution, but it is often found to have the best Return On Investment. Technological advancements can lead to significant improvements in efficiency and allow future-proofing to be considered.

Check your compressed air usage

Another way of optimising your compressed air systems wastage is regularly checking the compressed air demand. This is done through simple datalogging and involves simple clamps being temporarily fitted to the equipment. These measurements then are transformed into a detailed benchmarking report full of recommendations for improvements.