Compressed air monitoring
Non-invasive measurement of the compressed air consumption of individual machines and production segments within the scope of energy management in accordance with ISO 50001?
Medium: compressed air
Pipelines: typically DN 25 – DN 35
Material: stainless steel, steel, plastic
Pressure: ~ 6 bar
Instrument Used
1 portable FLUXUS? G601 CA Energy ultrasonic system with a pair of GRM1NC3 clamp-on ultrasonic transducers (Lamb wave technology)
Advantages
Selling Points
Description
Schaeffler has implemented an energy management system in accordance with the global ISO 50001 standard. The Schweinfurt plant was first certified in 2012. Since then, the energy management team has been striving to identify new efficiency potentials. Through the systematic recording of the respective consumption of electricity, natural gas, district heating and steam, the relevant energy flows are made transparent and can be assigned to the individual production areas.
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Because of its high energy requirements, compressed air supply quickly became the focus of energy experts. Compressed air is, in principle, a very inefficient means of working: only a fraction of the energy used for its production is converted into actually usable mechanical work. It is therefore all the more important to use the expensive resource as efficiently as possible and, in particular, to detect leakages in the network quickly.
At the Schweinfurt site, the required compressed air is generated centrally by three turbo and three screw compressors. A compressed air meter is permanently installed in every production hall to calculate consumption. However, energy managers were not only interested in the total consumption. They wanted to know as much as possible the extent to which individual machines in the production line uncover losses and waste, and, if necessary, to optimise the respective production processes in organisational terms. However, the instrumentation of each individual machine with a compressed air meter would be costly and extremely complex. The Schweinfurt energy experts were looking for an alternative and came across FLEXIM and the portable clamp-on FLUXUS? G601 CA Energy ultrasonic system at a trade fair. The general-purpose device is not only suitable for non-invasive determination of liquids and fluid-based heat flows, it can also measure the flow rate of gases, even of compressed air at relatively low pressure.
Non-invasive flow measurement with clamp-on ultrasonic technology
Staff at FLEXIM are particularly proud of the pioneering work carried out to transfer ultrasonic technology to the non-invasive flow measurement of gases. In principle, non-invasive flow measurement of gases with clamp-on FLUXUS?G ultrasonic systems does not function differently from that of liquids, namely according to the transit-time difference method: if an ultrasonic signal is sent at an angle through a medium flowing in a pipe, it flows through the flow direction faster than against the flow. With FLUXUS? ultrasonic systems, this happens up to 1000 times in a second. The measuring transmitter measures very accurately the difference of the signal propagation times in and against the flow of direction. This is a measure of the average flow velocity in the pipe. From this, the measuring transmitter calculates the volume flow rate using the pipe geometry data entered as measuring point parameters as well as the media data stored in the internal database.
The main challenge for non-invasive measuring technology is to achieve sufficient irradiation of the ultrasonic signal into the gas flowing in the pipe, particularly at low pressure. Unlike the FLUXUS? F liquid flowmeters, which usually work with shear waves, acoustic transducers are usually used to measure the flow of gases, which stimulate so-called Lamb waves. They use the resonance of the pipewall and thus achieve a high useful signal. Through persistent research and consistent improvements in signal stimulation, irradiation and processing, developers at FLEXIM have succeeded in steadily reducing the minimum pressure required for noninvasive gas flow measurement using clamp-on ultrasonic technology. Therefore, FLEXIM’s FLUXUS? G clamp-on ultrasonic systems can now reliably measure gas flow on steel pipes from a pressure of just 3 bar. Measurement on plastic pipes does not require any minimum pressure.
For the energy management team at the Schweinfurt plant, the FLUXUS? G601 CA Energy has long become an indispensible tool, which is almost constantly in use. The ultrasonic flowmeter is mainly used for the non-invasive measurement of compressed air, e.g. for recording the load of individual production machines or for determining the basic loads of the various production areas. Users appreciate the rugged design and the practical functionality of the measuring system in everyday industrial life; in less than 15 minutes, non-invasive flow measurement on a compressed air pipeline can be carried out – without any disturbance of production operation. Measured values are stored in the internal data logger and can be easily transferred to a PC via a USB interface where they can be visualised and evaluated using FluxData software. This makes it easy to detect leaks in the compressed air network.
Customer
舍弗勒 Technologies AG & Co. KG, Schweinfurt Plant, Schweinfurt, Germany
With around 170 locations in 50 countries, the Schaeffler Group is a global automotive and industrial supplier. With precision components and systems in the engine, gearbox and chassis as well as rolling and plain bearing solutions for a variety of industrial applications, the Schaeffler Group already makes a decisive contribution to "mobility for tomorrow". In 2016, the technology company generated sales of approx. EUR 13.3 billion.?
More than 130 years ago, Friedrich Fischer laid the foundation stone for the rolling bearing industry with its patented ball grinding machine and the FAG brand. Today, around 6,000 employees work at the Schweinfurt site. Among other things, rolling bearings are produced for the heavy industry, production machines, drive and rail transport technology, medical technology and wind power. FAG Aerospace GmbH & Co. KG, also located here, is one of the world's leading development partners and providers of special rolling bearings for the aerospace industry.
For further information, please contact FLEXIM:
[email protected], flexim.com.