Jaguar in the West Midlands reckons it has reduced air power consumption across its sites by 26% and achieved a two-year payback, following energy audits by CompAir.
The company explains that CompAir first fitted data loggers to each of its machines at one site, to analyse air usage, pressures, energy consumption etc, over a two-week period.
That led to cost-saving proposals, involving upgrading to newer compressor models. In fact, Jaguar upgraded to two fixed-speed and one variable-speed rotary screw unit, configured so that one fixed-speed and the variable-speed machine run constantly, with the remaining compressor responding to demand.
Stage two involved an upgrade of the compressor system at Jaguar's Browns Lane veneer-manufacturing centre and the Castle Bromwich assembly plant then followed, with an upgrade of four compressor houses - three serving the main ring network and another, the paint shop.
Jaguar is continuing to log air usage of each system and, to date, has replaced one machine with an L132SR variable-speed compressor to help meet demands from the network.
