• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Pneumatic Tips

Tips, Trends, Resources, News and Information

  • Pneumatics Blog
  • Industry News
  • Air Preparation
  • Engineering Basics
  • Equipment
    • Actuators
    • Cylinders
    • Fittings
    • Gears
    • Grippers
    • Pumps
    • Air Compressors
    • Tubing
    • Vacuums
    • Valves
  • Pressure Sensing
  • Design Guides
    • Design Guide Library
    • Hydraulic Valves
    • Electro-Pneumatic Regulators
    • Hydraulic Cylinders
    • Hydraulic Hose Assembly
    • Hydraulic Pumps
    • Pneumatic Actuators
  • Videos
You are here: Home / Blog / How do you measure your compressed air’s air quality?

How do you measure your compressed air’s air quality?

April 19, 2022 By Paul Heney Leave a Comment

Share
Fig. 1. This poorly maintained drain had failed, found to be completely full, with a failed outlet valve that was allowing water and oil to enter the air dryer. The problem did not show up until a dew point monitor was installed.

Many industrial sites measure their compressed air quality, or think they do.  When asked to show the dew point of a system with refrigerated air dryers, the compressor operators will typically point to the air dryer display, not knowing that the reading is not really dew point, but the temperature within the air dryer itself.  Quite a few things can affect the level of dryness besides the temperature of the air — for example, a condensate drain failure (Fig. 1).

The most challenging sites in which to monitor and detect air dryer failure are ones with multiple parallel air dryers. Installation of dryers in parallel has its benefits, the resulting pressure loss is usually lower, saving power, and the system more reliable, but when one unit of a multiple set of dryers fails it is often difficult to identify a problem and narrow down the exact one causing the problem.

A particular issue is the fact that the dew point reading from a transducer placed at the outlet of a compressor room will measure the average dew point.  For example, on a system of five parallel dryers, with one failed unit in the mix, the reading on a main dew point meter will often only read slightly higher under normal conditions — even though one of the dryers has completely stopped functioning.  Therefore, it pays to closely monitor and trend the output of the compressor room, and even place dew point monitors on each individual dryer, if air quality is critical.

This was the recent experience at a large industrial plant producing abrasives.  The site had all refrigerated dryers in parallel, and each one showed normal dew point on the local control monitor.  However, frequent complaints from production areas about water in the compressed air challenged the compressor room operators.  Many checks of the dryers and associated condensate drains showed no problems. The problem wasn’t solved until the Facilities Superintendent arranged to purchase and use a dew point monitor.

The output of the main compressor room showed only slightly elevated levels; however, when the dew point readings of the individual dryer outputs were monitored, one-by-one, it became obvious that one dryer was the culprit. Further testing found an unexpected internal leak in the heat exchanger.

Many new, more accurate, and affordable air quality measurement instruments have been developed that can help monitor not only dew point, but lubricant content, hazardous gas contamination, air temperature, pressure, and even particulate size and volume.

Add these types of instruments to your monitoring system to know for sure our compressed air quality is to your specification.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Air Preparation, Blog

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Fluid Power World Digital Edition

Fluid Power World Digital EditionBrowse the most current issue of Fluid Power World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading design engineering magazine today.

RSS Featured White Papers

  • eBook: Practical Guide to Pneumatics
  • Saving energy and service cost with electric linear systems
  • White Paper-How to Design Efficient Pneumatic Systems!
Subscribe Today
Hose Assembly Tips

Follow Paul on Twitter

Tweets by @DW_Editor

Follow Mary on Twitter

Tweets by @DW_MaryGannon

Footer

Pneumatic Tips

Fluid Power World Network

  • Fluid Power World
  • Hose Assembly Tips
  • Mobile Hydraulic Tips
  • Sealing and Contamination Tips
  • Fluid Power Distributor Lookup

PNEUMATIC TIPS

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
  • About us
Follow us on Twitter  Add us on Facebook  Follow us on LinkedIn  Follow us on YouTube  Follow us on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy