AutoPartsAsia | OCTOBER 2017 | 41but analysing the data and providing
meaningful insights to customers
will set us apart. As a quality and
innovation-centric organisation,
Air Alert will play a key role in our
product development processes. The
system will provide us objective data
on our products’ performance in the
field making it a valuable tool for our
quality and product development
processes. Fundamentally, Air Alert is
about elevating our customer service
and by providing it free of cost, we
will emphasise our ‘Always Better’
brand promise to our customers,” Jay
Varadharaj said.
Technology
SPC or specific power consumption
is the USP that makes any customer
buy a compressor as it determines
the efficacy of the machine. Usually
the pressure of compressed air
is measured in ‘bar,’ which is a
metric unit of pressure. The electric
power consumed to generate every
bar of compressed air is steadily
increasing. To put it simply, every bar
of pressure will result in 17 percent
increase in energy consumption.
In the conventional method SPC
is derived based on a certain way,
however, it is not based on the
specific requirements. Though SPC is
dynamic, the conventional method is
not enough to give the customer the
dynamic SPC. In order to address this
issue, among others, Elgi developed
Air Alert.
Air Alert is based on a three-pillar
strategy. The first one is ‘operational
information,’ in terms of usage of
compressor, uptime, running hours,
machine setting, etc. The second
pillar is ‘analytical information’ in
which the contents will have graphs,
usage reports, data download and
compressor health report. ‘Strategy
information’ is the third pillar and it
is responsible for proactive failure
prediction, energy optimisation,
proactive maintenance, quality and
product development process.
This technology gives the customers
the power consumption pattern
based on the actual usage of
compressor at the customers’ factory.
For instance, the ‘combination
metrics’ in the system gives sump
pressure, air pressure, temperature,
power consumption and the effect
of VFD – variable frequency drive.
VFD helps in optimising the power
consumption based on the actual
load requirements, thereby saving
power cost. The ‘compressor health
card’ gives the actual utilisation
of the compressor against power
consumed; this helps the customers
to not only enhance productivity, butalso plan to prudently source
new compressors when they need
to expand.
Presenting case studies on Air Alert,
Jay Varadharaj said one of their
customers who is into plastic pipe
manufacturing was able to save
energy cost by 40 percent. Based
on the data generated by Air Alert
the team from Elgi recommended to
install VFD to eliminate unload power
consumption. The payback period for
the investment on VFD is less than a
year, he said.In the case of a textile company, Air
Alert ensured improved life of the
compressor by timely service as it
helped identify the choked air filter
from abnormal pressure reading.
For a foundry, which is generally
addressed as 3D company – (dirty,
difficult and dangerous), the system
helped save energy cost to the tune
of 50 percent while also retaining
performance during unload cycle.
This is because it identified the
intake valve failure via abnormal
power consumption during load
cycle. Interestingly this is an old
machine and is about five years out
of warranty. “We want our customers
to think less about the compressors.
They should set it and forget it,”
Jay Varadharaj said.