Making pneumatics an energy miser

Smart design can substantially reduce the energy consumption and operating costs for a pneumatic system. Last August, the heartland of U.S. manufacturing found itself in the dark as production ground to a halt. Much effort has since been spent on preventing a recurrence of the great 2003 Blackout. For many companies, this brought about a renewed focus on energy and associated costs related to pneumatics in manufacturing. For instance, one of the largest automobile manufacturers -- and thus a company that endures the high energy costs of compressing air -- has expressed an explicit desire to eliminate pneumatics from the vehicle assembly process within five years. The reason is the perceived energy savings from alternative technologies. If only solutions were that simple. In reality, there are too many cases where pneumatics provides the ideal means of motion control in manufacturing processes. These include applications that involve: Pneumatics also offers other advantages over competing motion and control technologies. For instance, pneumatic systems are self-cleaning and offer excellent corrosion resistance, making them reliable in tough environments and easy to maintain. They quickly compensate for changing loads, offer inherent overload protection, and intrinsic safety. Modern pneumatic control provides simple, direct, modular links to all standard fieldbus protocols, offer nonmarking and even noncontact material handling, and can store energy to compensate for lack of electrical power. They even offer multiple-position control via pneumatic servodrives. Given the critical role pneumatic systems play in many industries, the question then becomes: How can manufacturing companies reduce energy costs associated with compressing air? The answer lies in reviewing how different manufacturing processes use compressed air and taking advantage of designs that minimize energy consumption. Let's start with the basics. The pneumatic energy used to perform a task is a function of the pressure and volume. In typical pneumatic systems,