Initiative aims to save money by eliminating compressed air leaks

The two companies are offering users of pneumatic automation a comprehensive site-wide detection, management and resolution of compressed air leakages. The potential cost savings are huge, it is claimed – industry analysts estimate that European manufacturers currently waste 25-35 per cent of the compressed air that they generate, mainly through leakage caused by bad maintenance practices, say the pair. In the UK, compressed air typically costs companies about 1.5 pence to compress 1 cubic metre of air to 7 bar – and a medium size manufacturing company is likely to consume about 50 cubic metres of air per minute. Extrapolating these figures to cover 24-hour operation gives an annual cost of £394,200. By adopting the type of comprehensive leak management strategy proposed by Festo and LeekSeek, companies could reduce their compressed air generation costs by up to 30 per cent, they say. In this example, that equates to a saving of £118,260 per annum – and a much smaller carbon footprint. Following a systematic leakage survey – for a typical medium-size manufacturer this usually identifies in the order of 500 to 1,000 leakages – the results are analysed using advanced software techniques and used to create a prioritised list of optimisation measures.