Air Products Smart Technology

For a farm with a short harvesting season, avoiding a gas runout is critical. When an Air Products customer who owns a berry farm realized telemetry wasn’t enough to maximize their operations, they turned to us for a solution. With Air Products Smart Technology capabilities, such as tank monitoring, their team can now monitor real-time nitrogen use so they know when a refill is needed. With real-time monitoring, customers no longer have to guess when a refill is needed, enabling them to avoid future supply runouts.

With storage space at a premium for an Air Products aerospace customer, they stored equipment wherever they found room. This resulted in delivery issues, as drivers were unable to deliver industrial gas to fill their tanks due to blockages, causing product runouts. By installing Air Products Smart Technology, the customer was alerted before a delivery so they could clear the area prior to the driver’s arrival. Additionally, push notifications alert the customer when they are nearing a runout, which helps the team stop or slow gas use to prevent emptying their tanks before delivery. 

A metal recycling company was experiencing variability in their remelting process, and operator skill and experience levels. This resulted in longer cycle times, reduced energy efficiency, and increased metal losses. The company partnered with Air Products to implement our Rotary Process Advisor system, a Smart Technology that, in conjunction with sensors and analytics, creates a digital twin model of the melting process. Using this technology, the company has experienced less process variability, in addition to significant benefits in productivity and yield, energy savings, and reduced carbon emissions.

At an annealing shop, maintaining a proper furnace atmosphere is critical to surface quality of the steel. The ratio of hydrogen to water determines whether the atmosphere is oxidizing or reducing to the steel at different furnace temperatures. Prior to implementing Air Products Smart Technology, a shop kept its hydrogen / nitrogen atmosphere ratio as a constant. After introducing dew point and hydrogen concentration monitoring, they were able to gain live insights into the furnace atmosphere and adjust the flow of hydrogen during operations, while still maintaining product quality. This allowed the shop to use less hydrogen overall, saving 30% in their industrial gas costs.