It is a well known fact that any industries use air as a utility for operating tools and machineries. While some use the normal air whose cost is less, some use compressed air that is comparatively costlier. But many are unmindful to this fact and don't give a serious thought to this cost factor. This in turn has led to severe costing inflation by way of Compressed Air Leaks and its related effects.
Air, with its basic property of moving loosely in the atmosphere, when constrained to a narrowed area like the container, compressor, pipes, etc struggles to get freed out and spread around in its natural form. It keeps struggling every moment and any opportunity that it gets to get released, it doesn't loose it. Even if it is a small hole it starts to flow out of it gradually leading to reduced air pressure in the system that compels the machinery or the tools using it as a source, to function even more harder. When such Compressed Air Leaks are not detected in time, it gradually eats away the surrounding metals with its force and the hole starts widening up leading to more leakage. And this is directly affected on the machinery that gets over pressurized and leading to faster wear and tear.
These Compressed Air Leaks normally occur in certain specific points like control valve, regulator, assemblers like the filter, regulator etc. branch line connections, quick coupler etc. Though in normality the leakage of air is difficult to detect in general and using traditional methods, the Compressed Air Leaks to some extent can be detected but only if the leak is a major one. But by the time it is detected, things normally go out of control and production and mechanism gets hampered. To avoid such damages many manufacturers have come up with various air leak detection equipments.
These come in various sizes and depending upon the requirement one can go for the suitable one. These equipments are normally easy to handle and use and require no expertise except for the initial training for the detailed know how of the equipment. The latest method that is used to detect such
Compressed Air Leaks is the ultrasonic method. These ultrasonic leak detectors are easily operable and can detect the leak faster and costs less.
Many sectors do not take the wastage cost by way of such leaks into consideration while calculating the total production cost. So also the other indirectly related costs are overlooked. This leads to a situation where these leaks are normally overlooked that greatly mounts up and there is the tendency of taking them for granted. But when a detailed survey and analysis is made in an industry, one can easily find that these leaks contribute a major portion to the production cost and at the same time they can be easily minimized or even avoided with a proper system in place. This system would include an air leakage detection equipment, training, detection, reporting and further follow ups.
