Tech Tip: Air Consumption of Pneumatic Positioners
Consider steady-state air consumption when specifying pneumatic positioners
Warminster, PA -- All process and power industries use air compressors; the number and size of these compressors vary depending on the air demand of each plant area. Air compressors are costly to run and maintain, so any reduction of air usage will result in large financial savings in both the running cost of the compressors and maintenance reductions.
Most plants use pneumatically operated control valves and actuators that require positioners for modulating actuation of these final control elements. Pneumatic positioners constantly use air to position the final control element. This takes place during the up or down travel of the linear control actuator, or during the clockwise and counter clockwise travel of rotary actuators.
During the period that the actuator is stationary--at the process control set point--the positioner no longer needs to use air. However, virtually all positioners bleed a small amount of air during this time. The specification for this value is typically called air consumption at steady state or at stable state. Air consumption of positioners is specified in several engineering units, such as scfm; usgpm; kg/h or Nm3/h.
The amount of compressed air that the positioner consumes at steady state is important. Low air consumption means the positioner is more economical from an operating standpoint with higher energy savings. In many control loops with correct PID tuning, the control actuator may move only small amounts during the control cycle and the percentage of time at the steady-state position is high.
The TZIDC Digital Positioner from ABB Instrumentation provides best-in-class low air consumption at steady state--0.015 scfm regardless of the air supply pressure. This results from the unique design of the current-to-pneumatic conversion component that depends on a principle of operation developed by ABB. Popular competitive positioners may consume more than 50 times more air at steady state than the TZIDC, resulting in wastage costing thousands of dollars. To learn more visit www.abb.com/instrumentation or call 1-800-HELP-365.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 107,000 people.
For more information please contact:
ABB Instrumentation
Rob Mapleston
Tel: 1-215-674-6580 or 1-800-829-6001
robert.mapleston@us.abb.com
www.abb.com/instrumentation
