Behind the Wrench: A field technician’s perspective on what to expect during a gas audit

Aaron Melchiorre is a Field Service Technician for Purity Gas. He spends most of his time visiting current and potential customers in a variety of manufacturing settings—from food and beverage production, to automotive parts manufacturing, to metal fabrication. We wanted to get his unique perspective on the Purity Gas nitrogen gas audit.

The audit is a valuable step in your new relationship with Purity Gas because it demystifies your nitrogen usage and helps you better understand how a NITROCENTER Ⓡ nitrogen gas generation system can work for you.

Aaron, what type of training led you to your role as a Field Service Technician for Purity Gas?

I often say that my role combines the skills of an electrical technician, millwright, and pipefitter. I specialize in installing, maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing industrial systems, and my education is in mechanical engineering technology.

Why do potential customers invest in a nitrogen gas audit?

Our audit gives you total visibility of your nitrogen gas usage, so you fully understand your current situation and the benefits of generating your own nitrogen on demand. Typically, we’ll study nitrogen pressure, nitrogen flow, compressed air pressure, and compressed air flow, depending on your current supply and setup.

And if you decide to invest in a Purity Gas system, the audit will tell our engineers exactly how to design a custom NITROCENTER Ⓡ to suit your needs.

What can I expect when you arrive at my facility to initiate the audit process?

You will already have had in-depth discussions with our sales team before I arrive on site. My goal is to experience first-hand your unique facility and operation. I’ll usually meet with a production manager or maintenance supervisor, who will show me your process.

I want to see where and how you store and use nitrogen gas. I want to see how your piping is configured. I’m also interested in what you want to achieve by generating nitrogen gas on site, and I can answer questions about the systems we offer.

The insight I gain is an important part of the audit, to go hand-in-hand with the data we gather.

For example, do you use nitrogen gas in food processing in an exceptionally clean environment? Or are you doing metal fabrication work where there’s metal particulate in the air? We might need to consider extra air filtration in our system design. I’m mindful of these conditions because we want your future system to perform well for you for a long time.

I’m also considering the size and shape of the facility. Where would we place the generation system? If space is tight inside, our NitroVault Ⓡ outdoor enclosure takes up no production space.

I’ll then install and test flow meters and pressure transducers, making sure we’re set up to capture every piece of equipment and every part of the process that uses nitrogen gas. You can expect some production downtime while I tap into existing lines—as little as an hour up to a few hours.

The monitoring devices will collect data for a two-week period.

Why the two-week period?

Over two weeks, we get a good idea of average and peak usage times and exact flow rates and pressures. The information gives you good insight and allows our team to appropriately configure and size your future nitrogen gas generation system.

We always want to do the audit during a period of heavier demand, so we can see you drawing nitrogen gas at your maximum level.

During your part of the audit process, how do you ensure you’re building a strong relationship with the customer?

This is really important. I’m on site to do quality work and provide the service the customer needs; at the same time, we’re beginning a partnership.

Our team relies on collaboration and customer input during the early stages and throughout what we hope is a long relationship. We want to build trust, and good communication is definitely part of that.

What happens after the two weeks of data collection?

We download the data and remove the monitoring equipment. Our engineering team reviews the data, makes sense of it for you, and provides a summary report.

You’ll understand every facet of your nitrogen gas consumption and see how we’d design a system matched to your operation.

What kinds of discoveries do customers find eye-opening?

Customers relying on liquid nitrogen deliveries may be surprised to learn how much nitrogen gas they’re wasting due to purge losses, boil-off, or system leaks.

For customers currently using older twin tower generation technology, audits often show a high compressed-air-to-nitrogen ratio, which means the system is inefficient for that application.

I would add that customers sometimes believe that they require very high purity, when in fact, for their application, a lower purity level would be sufficient—and more cost effective.

When do you get involved with the customer again?

Once you move ahead and invest in your Purity Gas system, I’ll be back to install it. From there, it’s an ongoing relationship. We’ll support you for the entire life of the equipment.