Page 38 - Glass Machinery Plants & Accessories no. 1-2019

ENERGY AND COST SAVINGS

Energy and cost savings
analyzed. Flow meters play a
huge role in employee aware-
ness about responsible energy
usage. The great thing about
flow meters is that they respond
immediately to any changes in
the machine settings and can be
linked to other VPInstruments
equipment that displays real-
time data over a web interface.
ACCURACY OR TREND
Insertion flow meters are easy
to install without having to shut
down the compressed air system.
However, in order to have these
meters take accurate measure-
ments, a straight length of pipe
before and after their location
is necessary. VPInstruments can
help to determine which locations
are best to install the flow meters
at, in order to gain accurate and pressed air the plant is using, and you have no idea how to improve
representative data. In the case what will be the correct combina- this system.
of less ideal installation condi- tion of compressors for a typical
tions, general trends can still be manufacturing plant. And if you GMP&A: As you say, if you can’t
detected. consider the many different sizes measure it you can’t manage it or
of manufacturing plants, you see improve it …
INTERVIEW that there is an incredible number VPInstruments: Yes. An example
Glass Machinery Plants & of variables involved in the use could be that sometimes you find
Accessories (GMP&A): When and of compressed air. If you don’t out by measuring that the pressure
why was the company founded? measure this air consumption of the air is going down signifi-
VPInstruments: The company
actually started up in 1999, as a
family-owned business, basically
because – as a family – we had
already developed flow sensor
technology. My father, in fact, was
one of the pioneers in flow sensor
technology – the thermal sensor
we’re using, and he invented it
way back in the 1970s. So when
we started up the company after
my studies at Delft University, we
started with a general purpose flow
measurement device and, after a
couple of years, we realized that
there was a lot of interest from
compressor manufacturers, which
led us to focus on compressed air
initially. Nowadays we do more
than compressed air of course!
So basically we are manufac-
turing audit tools for compressed
air, to find out how the compres-
sor is running, how much com-

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