Get rid of the borders! The future is customer-specific engineering and integrated compressed air solutions Increasing digitisation is changing industrial production in all areas. In process technology, mainly new visualisation and data analysis options provide what it takes to operate plants more productively, more resource-efficiently and with improved safety. Bernd Klemme, RKR Project Manager: compressed air as an integral part of the overall process.In view of this development, the AERZEN subsidiary RKR Gebläse und Verdichter GmbH, located in Rinteln, is strengthening its role as an engineering partner and system integrator - with the aim of seamlessly integrating compressed air solutions into process technology plants. It‘s about the integral approach.What is important now and in the future for compressed air solutions in process plants, especially in chemical engineering? Self-learning machines, artificial intelligence and preventive analytics are the developments that everyone is talking about. With the aim of operating plants in a more environmentally friendly way, the demand of operators for possibilities to monitor processes more holistically and to optimise them during operation, is noticeably increasing. At the same time, the demands on system reliability and safety are also increasing - something that can only be achieved with more sensors and intelligence.The view from above to the process levelA glance at daily business processes shows that operators are cooperating more closely with their plant manufacturers - right up to direct cooperation with machine builders. In comparison with the standard repertoire, RKR sees itself increasingly as a partner for specialised compressed air solutions. “In doing so, we leave the equipment view and move to the process level, where the compressed air is a component,” explains Bernd Klemme, RKR Project Manager. The definition and design of all conceivable interfaces are of particular importance here. These can be mechanical-constructive as well as affecting the wide field of control software. RKR connects the functional unit directly to the plant control system of a chemical plant.The AERZEN subsidiary already focuses at an early stage on the machine concept which provides maximum openness, including access to the actuator and sensor level. The barrier-free intervention possibilities then enable the operators of chemical plants to optimise the operating behaviour of compressed air generation as a functional unit of a production plant just as much as the actual chemical processes.Depending on the application, RKR uses the AERZEN product portfolio for the subsequent realisation phase. For the compressed air supply of process plants beyond the usual supply infrastructure, RKR for example connects the two-stage AERZEN compressors with a truck diesel engine via a flange solution including clutch. Direct drive via a steam turbine is also an option.
AERZEN divests its Gas Meter division Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH successfully sold its product division rotary piston gas meters to RMA Rheinau GmbH at the end of 2018.The AERZEN rotary piston gas meter has been a product rich in tradition at Aerzener Maschinenfabrik since 1930. Due to their design, however, demand and sales of measuring instruments were concentrated primarily on the German market. On the basis of the company’s international growth strategy, which mainly focuses on compressor technology and application specialisation, the AERZEN gas meter no longer fits in with the future target orientation. Against this background, the management decided to sell this product division to another company in the industry with good know-how.“For AERZEN it was very important to find a buyer who would offer the product range to our long-standing customers with the usual high quality,” says the CEO, Klaus-Hasso Heller. “We are very pleased that we have now found a reliable partner in RMA, based in Rheinau, who will not only continue the AERZEN technology, but will also develop it further in this way,” adds Klaus-Hasso Heller.
