Compressed Air Leak Detection

Detecting the undetectable is impossible on your own, but with the right equipment, it can be as simple as taking a video of your environment and following the arrows. It’s quite simple, almost too simple, but that doesn’t mean it is too good to be true. 

The Prosaris will be the best equipment for detecting compressed air leaks. This equipment uses three clusters of 8 microphones connected to a tablet and its camera to pick up on the specific frequencies that compressed air leaks make. We will review the details later when we break down the process of detecting compressed air leaks.

Compressed air leaks are a significant source of wasted energy and the culprit behind system operation problems. They result in fluctuating system pressure that reduces the efficiency of your air tools and air-operated equipment, which, if you didn’t guess, can negatively affect your production. 

In addition to wasting your electricity and increasing your energy bills, air leaks can cause many problems for your compressed air system.  These problems include but are not limited to:

• System pressure drops
• Inefficient functioning of air tools affecting production
• Shortening in equipment life
• Additional maintenance and downtime due to your compressor running more than needed
• Degrade dewpoint quality

Consider the Prosaris for Leak Detection 

The first step to locating compressed air leaks is to fire up the ultrasonic detection device. Once it is turned on, you must ensure your visual display is ready. You will then want to set your initial frequency range from 20kHz to 100kHz, although this probably won’t be where you leave it.

If the environment has excess ambient noise, that might disrupt your process. However, if you have it on 20kHz and above, you will start just outside the frequency humans can perceive. So you won’t have too many problems with picking up extra noise, but if you find yourself picking up noises you don’t want to be, you can narrow your frequency range.

Detection is possible due to the way sound waves are directionally transmitted. The microphones on the front pick up these sound waves and can identify where they are coming from based on the waves’ height, speed, and direction. The microphone then uses this data to pinpoint where the leak is coming from and displays an arrow on the screen toward the leak.

Once you have found a leak, you will be locked in on it based on the arrows on the screen, which triangulate on the leak itself; however, you can do even more in your basic leak detection process with the Prosaris One than you can’t with other devices by using their application in tandem with the device.

The software in the Prosaris application can read the sound waves detected by the microphone. The potential loss created by the compressed air leak will be calculated using data about the system (that you had already input before detection). 

You can then set your distance via a slider at the bottom to get the most accurate reporting on your reports. After reviewing and analyzing the information, you can get information that might take weeks to get back. You’ll save valuable time and be able to prioritize leaks based on their projected costs.

Whether you were looking for a reason to find compressed air leaks or equipment to do it yourself, Warthog has you covered. With the Prosaris in stock and ready to ship, you can conquer your own compressed air leaks sooner rather than later. 

Learn more about compressed air leak detection here.