June 2020 – Deltaplast Energy Scouts reduce costs for compressed air in Hungary

The company Deltaplast Kft. was established in 1991 in Kecskemét and manufactures plastic parts by injection moulding. The products include preforms for PET bottles and components for the car and furniture industry. A young team from Deltaplast, quality engineer Dorottya Poós, technician Tamás Szakolczai and project engineer Péter Mali, took part in the Energy Scout training courses and focused on optimizing the company’s compressed air system.

Plan, Do, Check, Act
The scouts applied the PDCA cycle with the four phases Plan – Do – Check – Act in their practical project. They documented the actual compressed air consumption in the production hall, located and marked leaks and fixed them with the help of an experienced technician. Finally, they checked the success of their measures. In future, this procedure will be repeated systematically 2-3 times a year, based on the PDCA process.

Removal of leaks, replacement of air blow guns, and optimization of compressor amount to annual savings of 8.300€
The three scouts implemented two further measures – and went through the cycle twice. Testing of the air blow guns showed that modern equipment reduces consumption by around 50%. The saving goals were again confirmed after the replacement and a second check.

Furthermore, the primary and secondary compressors were exchanged to fit the demand and to save additional energy. The primary compressor is more powerful, but the required amount of compressed air can be provided more efficiently by the smaller secondary compressor. In combination with a frequency converter the demand of compressed air can be delivered very efficiently.

Currently, the Scouts are already planning the next step: they want to use waste heat from the compressor to produce hot water starting December 2020.

The Deltaplast team won a special prize in the competition of the best Hungarian projects, as they received top marks for the transferability of the project idea and professional implementation.

Compressed Air Systems

System Optimization

  • Industry sector: Plastics industry
  • Energy source: Electrical energy
  • Energy saving potential: 105 MWh/a
  • CO2 saving potential: 21 t/a
  • Potential cost reduction: 8,286 €/a
  • Investment costs: 8,597 €
  • Payback period: approx. 1 year
  • Company:
    DELTAPLAST Kft.
    Mártírok útja 2
    H-6000 Kecskemét
    Hungary
    www.deltaplast.hu
Tamás Szakolczai, Péter Mali and Dorottya Poós check the compressed air system. (©Deltaplast)
The Scouts document and mark all leaks in the compressed air system. (©Deltaplast)
Many compressed air connections must be checked in the production hall. (©Deltaplast)
The marking of leaks enables quick repairs. (©Deltaplast)