BSL Fluid Power in partnership with Maxura have carried out an energy management survey of Goodyear's compressed air system at the tyre manufacturer's Tyre Retread plant in Wolverhampton. On the basis of the report findings, Goodyear have made changes to their plant and equipment that will save the company £36,000/year in energy costs. Incredibly, the capital cost of the changes was recouped by the energy savings made in a single day of operation.As part of BSL's commitment to continuous customer savings over and above that of component supply, Goodyear, an existing customer of BSL Wolverhampton Customer Service Centre, was offered a free preliminary compressed air energy management report.The findings of the initial report showed that substantial savings were possible and guaranteed the cost of a full survey would be recouped by the savings made.These results encouraged Alan Bickerton, Senior maintenance engineer for the Goodyear Tyre Retread Division, to commission the full survey.Mr.Bickerton used the survey analysis as an opportunity to receive independent advice on improvements to the compressed air system and the results enabled the Tyre Retread Division to make a valuable contribution to Goodyear's general environmental program for the wider 100 acre site.The energy management survey highlighted a number of areas where changes could significantly reduce the power consumption of the division, improving both the working and general environment.Recommendations included resetting air pressure switches to lower levels, locating system leakage and installing throttling valves.One of the more important findings of the report concerned the timing switches controlling the main compressors.Two Atlas Copco GR1120 compressors supplied several processes including autoclave machines and general air tools via a reduced pressure ring main.The standby compressor was used to provide sufficient pressure to charge the two large autoclaves, this occurred seven times in every 24hr production cycle.Although the standby compressor was in use for only two and a half minutes during autoclave charging, the report found that it had a run on time of 479 hours in a 27 day period.After receiving the survey results, Alan Bickerton and his staff immediately replaced the run on timers in both compressors.The saving made on reduced energy costs covered the cost of the equipment in just one day of operation.Commenting, Mr.Bickerton states 'some of the recommended changes have helped us make minor adjustments to the system to save energy and reduce leakage, but the replacement of the timers has proved to us the real value of the report and will continue to make large energy savings for us while extending the life of our secondary compressor'.The energy report survey is available from over 100 BSL Customer Service Centres nation wide.