www.hpmag.co.uk HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS October 2025 25 compressors is often lost through leaks. That means the compressor works harder, energy bills go up, and pressure drops across the system. Most leaks come from old fittings, worn seals, or hoses that have hardened over time. Finding them used to mean walking around with a spray bottle of soapy water or just listening for hissing noises, but newer ultrasonic leak detectors make the job quicker and more precise. Running regular leak checks – even quarterly – can save more than the cost of the labour involved. Training is another part that often gets overlooked. Pneumatic systems are sometimes maintained by staff who have been handed the job rather than formally trained in air systems. They can fix what they see, but may not understand how a small change upstream affects performance elsewhere. Investing in short refresher courses or practical training sessions can help maintenance teams recognise early warning signs and choose better solutions. A little knowledge about how to read flow rates, pressure differentials, or valve characteristics goes a long way towards improving reliability. While newer systems are easier to monitor, there are plenty of older installations still running, especially in UK factories that have grown gradually rather than being built from scratch. For these, retrofitting smart components might not be realistic in the short term. But even simple practices like tagging maintenance history, checking regulator settings against design values, or installing local pressure gauges can make the system easier to manage. Over time, patterns emerge – for instance, a certain line that always develops leaks, or a particular brand of valve that sticks after a few months. These insights help focus effort where it matters rather than chasing random faults. Downtime is the visible cost of poor reliability, but there are hidden ones too. When a pneumatic circuit starts acting up, operators might slow down production or change processes to compensate. Quality can suffer if actuators don’t move consistently. In food processing or packaging, a slight mistiming in air cylinders can lead to jams or product waste. These knock-on effects are rarely tracked as maintenance costs, but they impact productivity just the same. Treating pneumatic reliability as part of overall process efficiency, not just as a maintenance issue, helps justify investment in monitoring and upkeep. There’s also a cultural side to the issue. In many plants, the compressor room is seen as background noise – literally. But air is an energy carrier, and a valuable one. If electricity or steam were leaking out of a pipe, it would get attention immediately. Compressed air deserves the same respect. When teams start thinking of air as a utility with real cost and value, behaviour changes. Pressure settings are reviewed, leaks are reported sooner, and preventative checks become routine instead of optional. Finally, there’s the question of planning. Pneumatic components are generally inexpensive, but delivery times can be long, especially for older or specialist models. Keeping a modest stock of common seals, solenoid valves, and fittings can prevent unnecessary delays. Similarly, documenting control settings and circuit diagrams – even just updating an old drawing – saves time when faults need diagnosing. Good documentation is as much a part of reliability as the equipment itself. The overall theme in all this is not dramatic overhaul but practical attention. Pneumatic control systems don’t need complex digital upgrades to be reliable; they need consistency, cleanliness, and observation. Air supply quality, seal condition, leak control, and steady pressure are the basics that keep everything running. Add a bit of monitoring and record-keeping, and the results are often immediate. Downtime goes down, energy use drops, and maintenance becomes less of a firefight. Reliability in pneumatics isn’t about eliminating problems entirely – no system is perfect – but about preventing small issues from growing into big ones. In that sense, it’s much like the air itself: invisible most of the time, but essential when it stops flowing as it should.
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