The Client
This customer is the United States Post Office’s Jersey City location, the largest postal facility in the United States. According to their specifications, USPS requires a large amount of oil-free air. This facility handles tens of thousands of letters and packages every day, and compressed air runs their conveyor belts. Downtime is not an option, especially in the peak season around Christmas.
The Challenge
The USPS facility in Jersey City was once a customer of Scales Industrial Technologies, the Quincy distributor in the area, but had been persuaded by a competitor to pursue their product line over the last 10-15 years. As a result of this decision, the Jersey City facility began experiencing issues with all four compressors purchased from our competitor.
After just 25,000 run hours on all three 75 HP competitor units, failures began to occur frequently, leading the facility to remove parts from one or more machines to keep just one compressor running. Costly repairs and downtime led the facility to search for a different brand.
Quincy had recently worked with the facility’s engineering firm at two nearby locations, so the USPS office asked us for help writing a specification for replacement compressors. In addition to the three 75 HP units they had to replace, they also needed to replace two 200 HP units for another process in the building. We ran a full assessment of their system and what we could offer.
“With costly repairs causing downtime, our assessment of their system found that we would save the facility around $15K per year for each Quincy compressor!” – Tom McCartney, Sales Engineer
The Solution
As a solution, we offered to replace all five total units. Two 75 HP units have already been replaced and we are awaiting the installation of three more compressors to change the facility from our competitor’s product to all Quincy blue. For the 75 HP units, we noted that the existing machines were all fixed speed.
The facility ran three shifts of operation, all with varying air demand. Some shifts saw two compressors running, others saw just one — and all had variations in load and unload ratios. With this in mind, we proposed variable speed equipment. The environment was right for this type of equipment and the additional investment cost would undoubtedly be offset after just a year or two of operation. When we crunched the numbers, the yearly operational cost would save the facility around $15,000 annually per compressor!
Quincy also added that this would be one of their new QOFT-75V compressors, featuring rotary tooth technology that’s been proven to be extremely reliable at the 75 HP range for decades. Between this, the energy savings and the failed reliability of competitive brands, Quincy was able to successfully install five total compressors in this facility.
About Quincy Compressor
Quincy Compressor specializes in compressed air technology, offering top-notch products and services since 1920. Serving the industry for over 100 years, Quincy is on the cutting edge, engineering quality and reliability into every offering. Award-winning accomplishments have allowed Quincy to build solid relationships with its customers and achieve compressed air systems best practices. Quincy’s flagship products include the QSI and QGV rotary screw compressors, the reciprocating QR-25, QT and Climate Control packages along with its innovative Royal Blue Warranty, widely recognized as among the industry’s strongest warranty program.