Results from continuous measurement of compressed air pressure at the M12 welding shop

March 2023

#Complex Diagnostics of Machinery #Diagnostics #Testing of components and systems

Project's goal

This project concerns the requirement of the M12 welding plant in Mladá Boleslav for continuous measurement of compressed air pressure at the distribution node for 6 bar due to random downtime of the production line. The aim of the measurement was to determine whether the actual compressed air pressure value fluctuates below 6 bar and can therefore cause downtime.

Results

It was found that the real value of the air pressure fluctuates below 6 bar. In the event that a large air intake occurs at the same time, the air pressure may suddenly drop below 6 bar, which in some cases may cause the work operation to fail due to insufficient air pressure.

Solution description

As part of our diagnostic methods, we offer diagnostic measurement of compressed air consumption and extraction. Let's have a look at how such a measurement looks like.

According to the request of the welding plant M12 in Mladá Boleslav, a continuous measurement of the compressed air pressure at the distribution node for 6 bar was carried out. The measurement was made because of random downtime on the production line.

Problems with production line failures started to occur when the compressed air supplier reduced the pressure from 6.2 bar to 6 bar. This decision was made to save electricity. According to the welding plant operation within 6 bar pressure is sufficient for the operation of the production line.

Therefore, the location where the most frequent production line failures occurred was identified. A continuous data measurement technology was installed at that location to capture data from the day and determine if the fault is at a specific point in the production line or if the fault is on the supplier's side. For the continuous pressure measurement, technology with a Data Logger was used to record real-time activity and evaluate them retrospectively. The measuring set-up was based on a sensor with IO-link communication.

The result of the measured data shows that the values of the supplied compressed air fluctuate and are not constant (the supplied compressed air falls below 6 bar). The reasons for the pressure fluctuations can be caused by, insufficient dimensioning of the compressed air ducts, the capacity of the air ducts or an error on the compressor itself.

The measured results were consulted with the compressed air supplier who made an analysis of the compressor. It was detected that the compressor was not delivering a constant pressure, but had issue with a loss of power during the delivery which caused a drop in the overall compressed air pressure.

This sudden drop in the compressed air pressure may cause machine failure due to non-performance of the working operation (insufficient pressure to perform the given operation) when there is a higher consumption in the production line a tone time

The consequence of the measurement result and the information obtained is to increase the pressure back to 6.2 bar until the issue with the compressor is solved.

Benefits and Details