Plastic moulding firm’s compressor upgrade saves 60 tonnes of CO2 a year

02 June, 2020

It was also noted during the survey that the system was running between 9 to 9.9 bar − considered to be too high in relation to the application needs. It was therefore recommended that system pressure on the new VSD machine should be reduced by weekly 0.2 bar increments. At 8.4 bar, this procedure already reduced the energy requirement by 10.5%. Further reductions of the pressure down to 7.5 bar was not thought to have any adverse effect on the performance of Midas's production equipment.

Furthermore, Anglian Compressors advised Midas Pattern Company of the benefits to be derived from sectioning off the factory so that work areas could be shut down when not in use. They also recommended pre-programming the CNC machines with a line of code that shut off the swarf removal air blast once the process was completed. The combined effect of these measures, following the introduction of the VSD+ compressor, saw the night-time usage reduce from 10-35l/s down to just 5-20l/s.

To date, the level of energy used on site for generating compressed air has reduced by about two thirds to just 78,104 kW/h, representing a total saving of £14,554 per annum together with an estimated ROI payback of just 1.5 years: an impressive result, but only part of the success story. As a responsible plastics manufacturer, Midas Pattern Company takes climate change very seriously and has developed the Midas Green Initiative to communicate the progress it has made in reducing its carbon footprint. The compressed air system upgrade alone has reduced the company's carbon footprint by some 50 tonnes of CO2.

www.atlascopco.co.uk/compressors

Image caption] - The GA37VSD+ compressor has a free air delivery of 133 l/sec, enough to supply all the air Midas Pattern Co requires.