The Situation
Hawkeye Preferred Tooling Group makes blow-molding tools and produces its own blow-molded parts for large original equipment manufacturers in the trucking, off-road and automotive industries. The company had two 100-HP screw compressors in one building and two 25-HP units serving another building. At least one of the units had 180,000 hours on it.
The Challenge
Aaron Hickle, engineering manager at Hawkeye, said he was “tired of working on the two piles of s**t we had.” He was frustrated by the downtime the units were causing. Maintenance and repair costs were easily running upwards of $5,000-$10,000 per unit annually.
If Hawkeye cannot deliver, the company would not only have an unhappy customer, but it also would face fines and penalties outlined in the OEM contract. Its OEM customers can incur costs up to $25,000-$50,000 per day. That’s over $2,000 per hour or $6,000,000 per year!
The Solution
After consulting with its utility, MidAmerican Energy, Hawkeye started working with one of their approved trade allies, Iowa Pump and Compressor in Waterloo, IA. Fortunately, Aaron knew Iowa’s sales rep and service technician through their work with previous employers, so he trusted him.
Steve Rasmussen, president of Iowa Pump and Compressor, conducted a comprehensive audit and recommended that Hawkeye replace its two aging 100-HP “piles” with a single Kaishan 150-HP KRSP premium rotary screw air compressor equipped with a variable-speed drive. The KRSP is water-cooled, tapping into a chilled-water system the plant has for other uses.
“I looked at Steve square in the eyes. I said, ‘Are you going to service this thing?’” Aaron said. “You got to live the nightmare. I don’t want this to be an issue.” With Steve’s assurance that he would, Hawkeye quickly accepted his Kaishan proposal.
The Results
- AN END TO THE MAINTENANCE NIGHTMARE: Having reliable compressed air is no longer an issue, Aaron said. The Kaishan KRSP rotary screw compressors are “very good machines.” “We feel a lot more comfortable with our new compressors that we won’t have maintenance breakdowns and issues like that.”
- $25,000 IN ELECTRICITY COST SAVINGS: The company is saving $20,000 per year in electricity costs with the initial compressor purchase and an estimated $5,000 per year on the smaller unit. “A lot of it came down to the electricity bill,” Aaron said. “We can see huge savings with electricity.”
- $45,000 IN REBATES: The company earned a $20,000 rebate from MidAmerican Energy for the initial purchase and a $25,000 rebate for the second.
- A TRUSTED PARTNER: In Iowa Pump and Compressor, Hawkeye has found a reliable partner who is helping the company get the dependable compressed air, the fourth utility (joining electricity, gas and water) it depends on to deliver to its OEM customers. And the fact that the KRSP is made in the U.S. is also critical. “When breakdowns do happen, we’re not waiting weeks, if not months, for parts to get brought in from overseas,” Aaron said. “So being a manufacturer ourselves, we’re all about U.S. products.”
“We feel a lot more comfortable with our new compressors, that we won’t have maintenance breakdowns and issues like that. We can see huge savings with electricity.”
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