If you work or own a food manufacturing business, you likely come into constant contact with compliancy needs. From managing upcoming FSMA 204 compliance, USDF/SQF compliance and more, oftentimes it may feel like success in the food business is just about navigating compliance. Unfortunately, your compressor is no different - choosing the right compressor for food manufacturing can be daunting, between choosing between multiple options available on the market, and ensuring they are compliant with operations. Luckily, here at A1 Compressor Warehouse, we can help you through your entire compressor process!
The High Stakes of Food-Grade Air: Why Your Compressor Choice Matters
Choosing the wrong compressor or failing to properly maintain for your food compressor can be disastrous for your business for a few reasons:
Underpowered Compressor - Higher Use and Wear:
Choosing a compressor that can't keep up with the demands of your manufacturing operation can lead to your compressor being under load for a longer period of time of your manufacturing operation - leading to more wear and tear on your compressor. This can lead to more frequent maintenance, and potentially even a shortened lifespan of your compressor.
Inability to Maintain Compliance:
Potentially the most significant factor in choosing a food compressor, compliance can be a critical factor for food companies. Between choosing an oil-free compressor, or a compressor that can be compliant and work with a special NSF H1 grade oil, how do you know what is right for your operation? Especially when falling out of compliance can mean halted manufacturing operations, recalls, or worse, it is critical that your compressor application adheres to compliancy.
Wasted Energy:
If you have worked in the food industry for more than 30 seconds, you understand how razor-thin margins can be. A food compressor that is drawing too much energy (oversized) or is under load longer than it needs to be (undersized), can lead to wasted energy, resulting in reduced margins from a manufacturing standpoint.
Comparing the Workhorses: Rotary Screw vs. Reciprocating Compressors
When it comes to choosing the right compressor type for your food business, there are two main options that we typically recommend, rotary screw and reciprocating:
Rotary Screw Food Compressors:
Often the most popular compressor for manufacturing operations, rotary screw compressors have two rotors that spin and continually compress the air. Rotary screw compressors have a continuous duty cycle. Typically for higher CFM requirements and best for heavy use, rotary screw compressors are often the #1 choice for food manufacturers.
Reciprocating Food Compressors:
Also known as piston compressors, reciprocating compressors can be a great alternative to rotary screw. A more traditional set up where the piston moves up and down (like a car) to intake/compress the air, reciprocating compressors are great for applications where air demand is more intermittent. While not a hard-and-fast rule, reciprocating compressors can often be more cost effective than their rotary screw counterparts, and thus can be great options for smaller manufacturing operations.
Bonus: Rotary Vane Compressors
Rotary Vane compressors are a special type of rotary screw compressors, offered by Mattei. Mattei's patented technology allows for lower rotation of the rotors while maintaining HP/CFM, leading to unmatched durability and less power consumption - critical for food manufacturers operating on razor thin margins. Combined with NSF H1 (read more below) V-Life Food Grade oil from Mattei, rotary vane compressors can be the ultimate choice for those in food industry
Oil-Free vs. Oil-Lubricated: Navigating Food Safety Compliance
The other main choice a food manufacturer must make when choosing a compressor is going with an oil-free or oil-lubricated set up.
To protect consumers, there are regulations about compressed air in the food industry - the goal being to minimize incidental contact between oil and food products. However, should there be incidental contact, the oil used must meet a certain set of regulations as to not cause harm to end consumers.
This is where the choice of oil-free or oil-lubricated compressors come in. Of course, an oil-free option can often be the best for food manufacturing, as you are completely eliminating this variable. However, oil-free compressors can sometimes require more investment up front, and provide less options when it comes to manufacturer choice. On the other hand, while an oil-lubricated compressor set up can provide more options for you to choose from, you must maintain NSF H1 compliance in the oil that you choose. This can limit your options, and most compressors require an upgrade in order to be able to work with this special type of oil.
Choosing the right set up boils down to application type - smaller operations might be okay with an oil-lubricated option, while larger operations might prefer an oil-less set up.
Sizing for Success: How to Calculate CFM and PSI for Your Facility
Another major factor in choosing a food compressor is size. While deciding what CFM, PSI and thus potentially HP can be difficult as there is no specific rule when it comes to sizing, here are some factors that you might consider:
End use: is this for a simple food can sealing operation, or something more advanced?
What type of equipment are you powering with compressed air?
How many iterations of this equipment are you powering?
How is the air plumbed through the manufacturing facility?
For small operations that may only have a few users of compressed air as part of their manufacturing process, a 10 or less HP compressor should suffice. For companies with 10+ tools pulling air, a 15 or more HP compressor might suffice. For extremely large facilities, you might go up to a 200 or more HP solution.
Our expert team here at A1 Compressor Warehouse can help make recommendations for you based on your facility set up and use case.
Maximizing ROI: Energy Efficiency and the Cost of Air in Food Processing
As we mentioned, energy efficiency is critical in manufacturing operations where margins are extremely thin.
This is where both compressor sizing and type come into play. Choosing the right compressor type (this is where Mattei's rotary vane can offer significant savings in the long-term) and right horsepower/CFM offers the right balance between power output to meet demand, and efficiency.
We are here to help at A1 Compressor Warehouse - if you ever need an overview of options, or want to bounce ideas off of us, we are happy to help!