Product category:
Airline equipment, filters, drains and traps, control systems, etc.
News Release from: Parker Domnick Hunter | Subject: Pneudri compressed air dryers
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 21 August 2006
'Oil less' means the compressor - not
the air
Few people realise that an 'oil free' compressor will not necessarily deliver compressed air that is not contaminated with oil it - the term 'oil free' simply means a compressor that is 'oil less'.
In many diverse compressed air applications, the concept of using oil flooded screw compressors, together with effective, high efficiency filtration, has been well established and accepted over a period of years, with numerous critical industries, including food and beverage, pharmaceutical and medical all utilising this high quality, low cost solution It is fair to say that few people realise that an 'oil free' compressor will not necessarily deliver compressed air that is not contaminated with oil
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 23 Aug 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The term 'oil free' simply means a compressor that is 'oil less' and does not refer to the delivered air quality.
Much is made of oil in any compressed air system, but, in real terms, oil is the least of the problems and can be dealt with easily with the application of high efficiency coalescing and oil vapour/odour removal filters.
By far the biggest problem is that of water and all that goes with it.
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Controller can significantly improve the energy efficiency of most types of heatless desiccant compressed air dryer to dramatically cut fuel bills.
Change those float drains annually
A word of caution for companies planning annual maintenance programmes - do not forget to change internal float drains - or condensate might get back into the system.
In a typical compressed air system of 2.8m3/min (100ft3/min), a modern screw compressor operating at 2-3 ppm oil carryover over 4000 hours would produce over 2200 gallons of water which could also contain rust, dirt and bacterial growth.
The actual oil content of this condensate is less than 0.1% volume and would be virtually undetectable and perfectly reasonable for most applications.
This vast amount of dirty, rusty, contaminated water is the real problem and must be dealt with by effective compressed air treatment to avoid system malfunctions and failure, and most importantly, product spoilage and recall.
Oil contamination has tended to be the focus in a bid to sell expensive oil-free compressors, but any oil-free compressor running at the same reference conditions will still produce the same 2200 gallons of dirty contaminated water.
Effective removal by water separators, filters and dryers will inhibit corrosion, micro-biological growth and spoiled products.
An installation fitted with domnick hunter OIL-X Evolution filters will not only remove oil and water aerosols down to 0.01mg/m3 but also particulate down to 0.01 micron in size.
Pneudri compressed air dryers will remove remaining water vapour to give a dewpoint of -40 deg C (-70 deg C optional).
Domnick hunter has a reputation for providing innovative solutions and high efficiency, high quality compressed air treatment products which have been independently validated to ISO standards by Lloyds Register, the world's leading approvals body.
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