Bay Controls Slashes Energy Usage by Over 9% in Ford Plants across North America
Toledo, OH (PRWEB) November 07, 2016 -- By integrating advanced air compressor controls into Ford Motor Company’s global energy management platform, Bay Controls – an energy solutions company specializing in industrial controls – reduced compressed air energy usage by an average of more than 9% at ten plants throughout North America. Brian Bee, Operations Manager of Bay Controls, delivered details of this accomplishment at the 2016 Niagara Summit in New Orleans.
In his presentation, Bee explained how Bay Controls used Tridium, a platform that consolidates data from geographically diverse, multi-vendor systems, to control all air compressors at ten Ford plants in three countries. The resulting ability to automate pressure scheduling and clone the most efficient practices from plant to plant made it possible for Bay to guarantee that Ford would realize annual energy savings of $1 million.
“One of our main challenges was to provide both easy accessibility and security,” said Bee.
Security was a driving force on this project. During his presentation, Bee highlighted Bay Controls’ ability to unify different air compressor makes and models in a highly secure environment. With the Tridium platform developed by Bay Controls, Ford can now monitor real-time compressed air system performance data such as pressure, power and flow. Operators no longer need to make rounds to collect this data because it is now available anywhere a user can access the corporate network.
“Remote control of air compressors allows operators to make decisions from anywhere in the facility, saving time and improving productivity,” says Bee. “If anything causes a problem—like higher power demand or sub-optimized equipment performance– alarm notifications are directed to the correct personnel so they can respond quickly to issues without being tethered to their equipment. This process is automated, almost instantaneous, and cuts human error.”
Bay Controls’ compressed air system integration platform is a breakthrough for manufacturers with multiple facilities and multiple types of air compressors who need to maintain everything within their own, closed network.
About Bay Controls (http://www.baycontrols.com)
At Bay Controls, energy solutions are built on 30-plus years of experience and R&D in the industrial controls and integration market. Since 1983, Bay Controls has provided industry-leading compressed air controls and integration and automation solutions to a wide variety of customers in the United States and over 60 countries around the world. The company delivers cost savings for customers through intelligent control strategies, improved system management, and increased reliability.
Kim Williams, Bay Controls, http://www.baycontrols.com, +1 419-891-4390 Ext: 106, [email protected]
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