Firth Concrete is New Zealand’s largest national manufacturer of ready-mixed concrete and concrete products.

The air compressor plays a critical role at Firth, keeping the block plant running by operating all the machinery that produce the company’s masonry products. After making an assessment, FPS’s Compressed Air/Pneumatics and Vacuum Technician John Bailey found the compressor was running all the time: “It was over-sized for what they needed, plus it was inefficient so we recommended a replacement.”

John recommended an 11KW multi-functional screw compressor, with an air-dryer and filtration unit, which was hooked up to an existing receiver and connected to the air dryer to solve the issue of moisture in the system.

In operation for nearly six months, the new compressor is doing its job very well. Ed Smith, Firth’s Masonry Plant Manager, says: “It’s been running great. We’ve had no issues at all.” He says the new compressor is more efficient and uses much less power, it's much better on component parts thanks to the air dryer, and replacement parts are readily available.

Ed says FPS was the obvious choice to address the issue, as the company has been servicing Firth’s plant since 2011.