-   Article Get rid of the borders!

The future is customer-specific engineering and integrated compressed air solutions

Increasing digitisation is changing industrial production in all areas. In process technology, mainly new visualisation and data analysis options provide what it takes to operate plants more productively, more resource-efficiently and with improved safety.

In view of this development, the AERZEN subsidiary RKR Gebläse und Verdichter GmbH, located in Rinteln, is strengthening its role as an engineering partner and system integrator - with the aim of seamlessly integrating compressed air solutions into process technology plants. It‘s about the integral approach.

What is important now and in the future for compressed air solutions in process plants, especially in chemical engineering? Self-learning machines, artificial intelligence and preventive analytics are the developments that everyone is talking about. With the aim of operating plants in a more environmentally friendly way, the demand of operators for possibilities to monitor processes more holistically and to optimise them during operation, is noticeably increasing. At the same time, the demands on system reliability and safety are also increasing - something that can only be achieved with more sensors and intelligence.

The view from above to the process level

A glance at daily business processes shows that operators are cooperating more closely with their plant manufacturers - right up to direct cooperation with machine builders. In comparison with the standard repertoire, RKR sees itself increasingly as a partner for specialised compressed air solutions. “In doing so, we leave the equipment view and move to the process level, where the compressed air is a component,” explains Bernd Klemme, RKR Project Manager. The definition and design of all conceivable interfaces are of particular importance here. These can be mechanical-constructive as well as affecting the wide field of control software. RKR connects the functional unit directly to the plant control system of a chemical plant.

The AERZEN subsidiary already focuses at an early stage on the machine concept which provides maximum openness, including access to the actuator and sensor level. The barrier-free intervention possibilities then enable the operators of chemical plants to optimise the operating behaviour of compressed air generation as a functional unit of a production plant just as much as the actual chemical processes.

Depending on the application, RKR uses the AERZEN product portfolio for the subsequent realisation phase. For the compressed air supply of process plants beyond the usual supply infrastructure, RKR for example connects the two-stage AERZEN compressors with a truck diesel engine via a flange solution including clutch. Direct drive via a steam turbine is also an option.