Time to plan compressed air maintenance

2020 has thrown us all quite the curveball with COVID-19. Lockdowns, operating restrictions and social distancing have meant that for some businesses, compressed air maintenance has been neglected.

Kaeser Compressors said this could cause a myriad of problems — from costly and unplanned downtime to premature wear of components and consumables.

This could negatively impact the expected life of the compressed air equipment, resulting in unnecessary expenditures at a time when many businesses are struggling.

With many companies deferring capital expenditure budgets and planned projects stalled, Kaeser Compressors has urged businesses to schedule maintenance or upgrade its existing compressed air equipment over the summer break.

“With the festive season fast approaching — a time when many businesses typically have a long period of shutdown — now is a great time to start planning in compressed air maintenance and in particular the larger maintenance jobs that need to be completed which take longer to do,” the company said.

Some common compressed air system maintenance tasks that require a longer shutdown period include: replacing motor bearings, removing and cleaning coolers as well as oil/water separator cleaning and replacement.

These components are often exacerbated by hot weather.

The company also said that while maintaining and recalibrating existing systems is essential, investing in a new system will futureproof businesses moving forward.

“Probably one of the greatest advantages of such advanced compressed air technology in the current COVID-19 situation — where many facilities still have staff working remotely, where the number of people in a facility may have been reduced and where many facilities are still limiting access to suppliers — has been the ability to remotely monitor a compressed air system in real time,” the company said.

In addition to wirelessly connecting the system to a smartphone or laptop, Kaeser’s technology enables the end user to receive alarm and maintenance messages for individual components as well as warnings or service requirement notifications via email or text message.

The company also said it is worth businesses remembering to consider the various Australian Government financial initiatives currently available, such as the Instant Asset Write-Off and the Backing Business Investment, which can make investing in new capital equipment more accessible at this time.

Image courtesy of Kaeser Compressors.