Vacuum Systems

Vacuum systems are considered “black magic” by most plant engineers, even more so than compressed air. Terms like icfm, cfm, torr, and Nm3/hr get bandied around and confuse us all. What plant engineers know is what works. If they run vacuum pump X at vacuum level Y, everything works. That is a hard thing to change if there are inefficiencies in the system, even when an audit is recommending change. One of the biggest opportunities I run into for savings is the consolidation of multiple vacuum systems running at a lower absolute pressure (higher vacuum) than is really needed. Therefore, educating the customer is critical.

Two years ago, sales were picking up and we began operating six extrusion lines on most days. We had to bring in some portable chillers, to keep up, and we started looking at buying a larger cooling system. We wanted to get rid of the portable chillers and have room to grow into four more extrusion lines. The new system we looked at was a 100-ton system that would have cost us around $150,000 in capital and installation and with a larger monthly electricity bill.

We were about to buy the new 100-ton chiller when our President, Abe Gaskins said, “Hold-on, can we replace the Liquid Ring pumps with something that doesn’t consume water”? That was our “Eureka!” moment.

Most printing facilities use vacuum for one process or another.  I recently spoke with Jesse Krivolavek, (a vacuum system efficiency specialist with IVS, Inc.) about his recent adventures in the world of printing.