Most engineering applications not only require large volumes of high quality compressed air, but – more than ever – also demand optimum reliability, availability and energy-efficiency from their air systems. Perfect co-ordination and monitoring of the compressed air system is therefore essential to ensure that these needs are met. The “Sigma Air Manager” provides unrivalled air system transparency and delivers all the advantages that advanced control and management technology has to offer. A modern compressor installation usually depends on perfectly co-ordinated “teamwork”, as the various compressors and air treatment units need to work in close harmony. It is this area where the greatest energy saving potential lies. Combining the versatility of a modern industrial PC with well-proven Internet technology, the “Sigma Air Manager” (SAM) is an all-in-one master controller and web server that offers precision co-ordination of the compressors and associated system components within a compressed air installation. It is therefore able to deliver unrivalled compressed air availability with maximum system efficiency. The SAM combines clear data visualisation with modern pressure band control technology to enable exact pressure regulation to within ± 0.1 bar. This allows system pressure to be reduced and can lead to significant savings, as each 1 bar decrease results in a 6 percent reduction in energy consumption. SAM models suited to optimised operation of 4, 8 or 16 compressor units of various capacities are available and each is equipped with an easy to read screen that can display operational data in any one of 30 selectable languages. As a powerful industrial PC-based system, the “Sigma Air Manager” has a large memory capacity, which enables integration both of compressors equipped with the internal “Sigma Control” (itself a PC-based system) or a conventional compressor controller. Furthermore, the “Sigma Air Manager” is suited to managing small or large compressed air installations and is more than capable of meeting new and growing air supply demands. All versions are equipped with an Ethernet connection allowing the user to simply connect to an available computer network and take full advantage of the benefits that a modern compressed air management system has to offer. Logically structured text menus ensure simple operation, whilst graphs of all current operational data can be viewed at any time using every SAM’s ready-installed “Sigma Air Control basic“ data visualisation software.
Available as an added option, “Sigma Air Control plus” is a long-term analysis tool which can be used without the need for additional specialised software via any desktop computer equipped with a standard browser and internet access. On-load and off-load status, system pressure, power consumption and compressor duty cycles can all be displayed and evaluated from various aspects for an elapsed period of up to one year. This allows the user to keep a constant eye on compressed air costs and to closely monitor operation of the air system. In addition, compressor systems controlled by a “Sigma Air Manager” can be seamlessly incorporated into the Kaeser ‘Teleservice’ facility: All relevant data is instantaneously transmitted over the Internet via a standard modem interface, or by SMS, to the Kaeser Service Centre. Specially trained service technicians are then able to remotely analyse the data to provide demand-oriented preventative maintenance, which significantly increases compressed air availability. | 
