The use and leakage of compressed air in any industrial plant represents a significant energy footprint and is a problem for a company that is either pursuing a net zero carbon target or one that is simply trying to reduce energy expenditure.
In an interesting case study, a major consumer goods manufacturer succeeded in reducing their compressed air consumption and thereby energy usage by 22% through the use of an integrated compressed air monitoring solution from Emerson. The system includes sensors, edge computers, OPC-UA servers and software. One of the case’s big challenges, which is common to many manufacturers, was overcoming the fact that most inline sensors do not have real-time clocks, so there is no clear way to determine timing of events. The monitoring system needed an elegant, scalable and efficient way to overcome this problem. In addition, the solution had to scale to 38 global manufacturing centers using a single central monitoring and control system.
To see how Emerson met and exceeded the requirements of this company, read the case study.