Parker’s Air Saver Decreases Compressed Air Waste, Increases Productivity

After a soft launch of its Air Saver Unit (ASU) this past year, Parker Hannifin is now promoting that the device also promises plant productivity gains on the factory floor.

Introduced from Parker Japan last year, the ASU allows users to eliminate the air that is wasted during constant blowing when blowing off chips, agitating products, PET bottle transfer, cooling, and cleaning, etc., says Rick Hand, marketing program manager for Parker’s Pneumatic Division North America.

“What this does is integrate a timing module into a directional control valve and it allows us to set a pulse rate that we can tune and adjust to the application so that we can go ahead and save that extra air,” Hand said. This could allow you to save up to 50% of wasted compressed air. And even if you’re only saving 10%, at 30,000 in.3, that’s a lot of air.

It is an energy-saving device, and more, Hand said. “What’s interesting to us is we’re selling it as an energy saving device, but we’re seeing productivity improvements at the customer level, because you can control the pressure and the flow and the pulse to give you more, give you less, vs. just having a constant.”

Through manual adjustment, ASUs can save energy by interrupting compressed air flow. These series of impulses are mechanically more advantageous because the ASU can recover during the “off” period of each on/off cycle. Thus, the air impulses are delivered with greater force than a steady stream of air.

“For years Parker has promoted good sizing practices, air audits, things that you can take onto the plant floor and look at as a way to save some money, because compressed air can be expensive if you’re not careful with it. We tend to add on and add on to a pneumatic system and the efficiency goes down and down and down as we do that if we don’t really pay attention,” Hand said. “The simple things in life sometimes are the things that are really beneficial. And when Parker came up with the Air Saver, it was like, ‘Why didn’t we think of this sooner? This is a no-brainer.’”

The Air Saver is available in port sizes ranging from M5 to 11/4 in. (5 to 530 cfm flow). Control is done through a pneumatic control or a solenoid version, said Hand. The device allows for adjustable pulse frequency and duty cycles. Additional features include a silicone-free grease version for paint shop applications and an on/off time adjustment needle.