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Nondestructive testing methods are increasingly in use. With these methods it is possible to obtain the desired information about the system, without altering or damaging it in any way. This paper examines the possibilities of applying these methods in the quantification of losses incurred by leaking of compressed air from the system in the terms of increasing energy efficiency of the system. The emphasis is on the application of ultrasound detector and IR (infrared) thermographic camera. The potentials and limitations of these technologies are analyzed for leakage quantification on a steel pipe in compressed air systems, as well as the reliability and accuracy of the results thus obtained

During pneumatic control system design, the critical value for choosing the appropriate pneumatic actuator is the weight of the workpiece. In the case of flexible production systems, which are the core part of the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) concept, the weight of the workpieces is often variable, since the crucial feature of this kind of production is its ability to deal with variable parts. Therefore, in order to deal with the variable weight of parts, a pneumatic actuator is chosen according to the heaviest part. However, according to another I4.0 principle, energy efficient operation of machines, the previous criteria for choosing a pneumatic actuator is energy efficient only when handling the heaviest part. In all other cases, operation of the pneumatic actuator is suboptimal in terms of energy efficiency. Aiming to solve this problem, this paper considers the possibility of using a new pressure regulator instead of traditional manually adjusted pressure regulators. This regulator provides operating pressure modification in real-time in accordance with the weight of the workpieces. In this way, the optimal compressed air consumption is ensured for each workpiece. Implementation of this device has yielded significant energy savings; however, the value is variable and depends on working task characteristics.

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