When you have multiple parties playing a role in the design of a production facility, proper communication is critical to ensure that all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. The design of a compressor room is no exception and you don’t want to forget important design considerations that could get lost in translation. In this article in a recent issue of Compressed Air Best Practices magazine I highlight some important tips to make sure that you don’t lose any pieces of that puzzle, particularly that key corner piece: ambient temperature.
Like the old game “telephone” when you were a kid, pieces of the puzzle can be lost between multiple parties, different vendors, engineering firms, and the contractors. Price often dictates what equipment gets installed as well.
When specifying a new facility, flow, pressure, and air quality are the most important inputs to design a system. In my experience, we—equipment manufacturers—spend a lot of time talking about these three items with customers.
However, room temperature, or ambient temperature, has a significant effect on plant operation. The amount of space, or lack thereof, for compressed air equipment and the cooling flow all have an important impact on plant operation; because if the air compressors are down; so are you!