Tag: air dryer

Compressed Air Pipe

The Power of Deliquescent Driers in Compressed Air Systems

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

In industrial manufacturing, compressed air is the unsung hero powering tools, machinery, and processes across manufacturing, painting, blasting, and beyond. But here’s the catch: moisture. That sneaky water vapor lurking in your compressed air lines can wreak havoc, causing corrosion, freezing, and contaminating sensitive equipment. Deliquescent driers are low-maintenance systems designed to tackle humidity head-on. In this blog, we’ll dive into what makes these driers tick, their pros and cons.

What Are Deliquescent Driers, Anyway?

Picture this: a simple tank packed with hygroscopic (water-loving) salt tablets that dissolve into a brine as they absorb moisture from compressed air. That’s the 1000-foot view of a deliquescent drier. Unlike refrigerated or desiccant dryers that rely on complex refrigeration cycles or regeneration, deliquescent driers use chemistry to do the heavy lifting. The process is elegantly straightforward:

  • Incoming air enters the bottom of the vessel, preheated from compression and loaded with water vapor.
  • It flows upward through a bed of deliquescent desiccant—typically formulated from salts like calcium chloride, lithium chloride, or potassium chloride.
  • The salts “deliquesce” (hence the name), attracting and dissolving water vapor into a liquid brine that collects at the base.
  • Dry air exits the top, with a pressure dew point suppressed by about 15-20°F below the inlet temperature, depending on conditions.

No electricity, no moving parts—just pure, passive drying. These driers have been a staple since the 1940s, especially in rugged settings like petrochemical plants, outdoor blasting ops, or mobile equipment where reliability is the largest concern.

Why Choose Deliquescent Driers? The Pros (and a Few Cons)

Deliquescent driers aren’t for every scenario, but when they fit, they’re a game-changer. Let’s break it down:

The Advantages:

  • Zero Energy Consumption: No power required means lower operating costs and no electrical hazards in wet or explosive environments. Ideal for remote sites or intermittent use.
  • Rugged and Portable: Mount them indoors or outdoors—they thrive in extreme temps, even subzero conditions, with the right setup. Perfect for mobile contractors in painting or abrasive blasting.
  • Low Maintenance: Just drain the brine every 8-hour shift and top up the desiccant a few times a year. A sight glass lets you monitor levels at a glance.
  • Cost-Effective Upfront: Cheaper to buy and install than high-tech alternatives, with no filters or separators to fuss over.

The Drawbacks:

  • Limited Dew Point Control: They suppress dew point by a fixed amount (e.g., 20°F), so hot inlet air means warmer outlet air—fine for many apps but not ultra-dry needs.
  • Corrosion Potential: The brine is salty and corrosive, so vessels need robust coatings, and downstream lines require after filters to catch salt carryover.
  • Pre-filtration Required: Oil from compressors can foul the desiccant, so a coalescing pre-filter is a must.

In short, if you’re blasting in humid conditions, painting in the field, or running air tools in cold weather, deliquescent driers deliver freeze-proof, reliable performance without the fuss.

At EXAIR Corporation, we’re keen on compressed air efficiency. The attention to detail we pay to our products – from design, to manufacturing & assembly, to availability, and right on through to technical support – bears out our commitment to helping you get the most out of your compressed air system. If you’ve got questions, Give me a call.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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Image courtesy of Brian S. Elliott, Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License

Save Money With Engineered Products, Then Save More Money With Rebates

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

One morning last summer, I turned on the water in the shower and waited for it to warm up. And waited…and waited. It was clear something was wrong, so I checked the water heater to find it emptying its contents into the floor drain, through the bottom of the tank, which I found later had rusted away. Between my better-than-average plumbing skills, having a son home from college, and finding out I could keep about $800 in my pocket if I bought a new one and replaced it myself, I woke the boy up (which turned out to be one of the more difficult tasks in the process), drove to my friendly neighborhood home improvement center, and bought myself a new water heater, and we had hot water by the time my wife got home from work that afternoon. Considering the way it started, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Not only was it more efficient (and therefore cheaper to run) than the one I replaced, the water heater I bought also qualified for a rebate, which increased my savings on the project to almost $900. That was some FANTASTIC icing on an already pretty decent cake.

Rewards like this for being energy conscious have been routinely offered by utility companies for years now. One time, I got a box of LED light bulbs, enough weather stripping for TWO houses the size of mine, and water-conserving shower heads, for free, from my electric company as part of a home energy audit. That was a pretty good day too.

Many utility companies across the country have similar programs for residential customers, and commercial ones too. Duke Energy (my free light bulb folks), for example, has a program they call Smart$aver that offers rebates and other incentives to companies for making energy-efficient improvements. Equipment that qualifies for these incentives includes process pumping systems, insulation for injection molding machinery & pellet dryer ducts, low friction v-belts for rotating machinery, and compressed air equipment.

That last one is what I wanted to write about today. It includes improvements to the supply side:

  • Receiver tanks
  • Cycling air dryers
  • Zero-loss condensate drains
  • Compressed air system audits

And the demand side:

EXAIR can help you out with the ones on the demand side. Consider:

Ultrasonic Leak Detector: this handheld device allows you to quickly & easily find leaks in your compressed air system.

EXAIR Model 9207 Ultrasonic Leak Detector filters out audible sound waves and focuses on the ultrasonic sound generated when compressed air finds its way out of a loose fitting, crack, etc. The parabolic disc (left) lets you find the area of the leak(s) and the tube extension (right) directs you to the precise location.
The copper tube used to have a crimped end that was aimed at the part in the chuck. They simply cut it off and used a compression fitting to install the Super Air Nozzle.

Super Air Nozzles: not only will these products get you a rebate, they’ll cost less to operate and will ensure OSHA compliance with regard to your use of compressed air. And they’ll do it quieter, to boot.

Replacing open-ended blow offs with Super Air Nozzles is oftentimes quick and easy. Compression fittings can be used to install them directly onto the ends of existing copper tubing. Stay Set Hoses can replace modular hose, which is great for machine tool coolant delivery but often misapplied for air blowing.

And frankly, I think the engineered products just look better too.

The Duke Energy Smart$aver program is for their customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. If that’s not you, though, North Carolina State University’s NC Clean Energy Technology Center has a comprehensive Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency – DSIRE – that’ll help you find what’s available in your area.

Compressed air isn’t free. Heck, it isn’t even cheap. If you want to find out how much you can save by optimizing your compressed air system in Six Steps, give me a call. And if you want to sweeten the deal with rebates and incentives, contact your local utility company.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Compressed Air Pipe

Intelligent Compressed Air: System Equipment

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

At the end of Naval Nuclear Power School, students who’ve just spent two years learning how to boil water must pass a comprehensive examination board before they’re released into the fleet as real live “Navy Nucs.” One popular question at these boards (in 1987 anyway) was to describe, in detail, the path a drop of seawater takes to become reactor coolant (a warship at sea must be self-reliant, and that includes making our own pure water.) A correct answer would prove the student’s knowledge of various piping systems, the steam distilling and water purification processes, reactor coolant chemistry maintenance, and, if you were lucky, a deep dive into the Six Factor Formula which mathematically defines the six events* that affect the probability of neutron multiplication, and hence, the sustainability of nuclear fission in the reactor core:

*Two of these six events relate to the thermalization of neutrons by the coolant. That’s why it’s considered to be a valid part of the ‘seawater-to-reactor-coolant’ question.
The block on the left represents a cubic foot of air at atmospheric pressure. The one on the right represents how much space the first one takes up when compressed to 100psig.

In that same vein, for today’s EXAIR blog, I thought I’d trace a Standard Cubic Foot (SCF) of air from the compressor room, through a typical industrial compressed air system, to its point of use. First, let’s define what that is: Imagine a cubic foot of air in front of you. If the atmospheric pressure is 14.5psia (average for sea level elevation), the ambient temperature is 68°F, and relative humidity is 0%, then that’s one Standard Cubic Foot of air. Now, let’s say this air is in an ideal compressor room – ‘ideal’ meaning those atmospheric conditions apply – and follow its path to an EXAIR Super Air Knife:

  • Filter, Part 1 (intake): When the air compressor draws our SCF in, it passes through filtration media to remove impurities like dust, oil, and moisture. It’s important to remember that this filter is there to PROTECT THE COMPRESSOR from those contaminants, not to provide any measure of cleanliness to the compressed air itself.
  • Compression: This is where our SCF gets compressed by reciprocal or rotating elements imparting energy to it, and it now occupies considerably less space than it did in the atmosphere. This also raises the temperature. When all the molecules that comprise our SCF get closer together, they run into each other more often, and that increased friction makes them hotter. Which can be bad, unless we do something about it.
  • After cooler: Hot compressed air can cause unsafe surface temperatures and can damage gaskets, seals, or other components in the downstream system. Cooling our SCF down is the first thing we want to do after compressing it.
  • Filter, Part 2 (discharge): While the Intake Filter takes care of impurities that could have damaged the compressor, the compressor itself can add some back into our SCF – like oil, wear particulate from meshing gears or seals on moving parts, etc. You’ll want to remove those as well, before letting them go any further in the system. Contaminants like that can really do a number on the operation and effectiveness of some types of dryers.
  • Dryer: While the intake filter removes some finite amount of moisture from our SCF before compression, the compression cycle increases the moisture concentration of it. Dryers come in different types and configurations, each with their own pros & cons, and certain types are more suitable for certain situations. Here’s a link to a blog on the subject by Jordan Shouse that’s both informative and entertaining!
  • Primary Storage: Once our SCF gets cooled, cleaned, and dried, it can take a little break if it’s not needed right away, in a receiver tank. Such a tank, like EXAIR’s Model 9500-60 60 Gallon Receiver Tank (right), near the compressor discharge, serves several purposes:
    • It maintains header pressure during any load transients that happen too quickly for the compressor to keep up in real time.
    • It provides further moisture removal, as any water that condenses in this receiver can be drained from a valve on the bottom.
    • It also allows the compressed air to cool further.
  • Distribution Header Piping: This is the “highway,” if you will, that our SCF travels to where it’ll be used. It’s not alone, either – there are sometimes hundreds, if not thousands, of other SCF’s passing through every minute. And if it’s not appropriately sized, there’ll be problems akin to traffic jams on crowded roads. The appropriate size and layout of the header piping will be determined by a number of factors – here’s a link to a blog with more details on that.
  • Airdrops: These are the branches from the distribution header that lead to the various points of use in the facility. Our SCF will take whichever one it gets directed to…in this case, the aforementioned EXAIR Super Air Knife. The proper size of the drop piping or hose will be determined by the compressed air consumption of the load(s) serviced by the drop, and its length from the header. In the case of our EXAIR Super Air Knife that our SCF is heading towards, the recommended in feed pipe sizes are listed in the Installation/Maintenance Guide:
The longer the drop length, the larger the diameter needs to be to compensate for line loss due to friction.
  • Filter, Part 3 (point of use): Good engineering practice calls for point-of-use filtration. Our SCF has already been through two filters, I know, but it’s also potentially picked up some more contamination along the way. Rust from the inside walls of iron pipes is the most common culprit. The EXAIR Super Air Knife that our SCF is heading towards needs its supply to be filtered for particulate to a level of 10 microns or less. EXAIR Automatic Drain Filter Separators have 5-micron particulate elements, and centrifugal elements that ‘spin’ out any remaining moisture. Depending on the needs of the application, we also have Oil Removal Filters with coalescing elements for oil/oil vapor. They also provide additional particulate filtration to 0.03 microns.
  • Regulator: It’s taken a good deal of effort and expense to get our SCF to this point, so it only makes sense to use it as efficiently as possible. A Pressure Regulator allows us to precisely ‘dial in’ the supply pressure so that we don’t use it (or any of the other SCF’s that it’s traveling with) any more than needed.
EXAIR Automatic Drain Filter Separators (left) can be directly coupled to Oil Removal Filters (center) and Pressure Regulators (right) for a compact installation, free from threaded connections.
EXAIR’s award-winning EFC Electronic Flow Control is a ‘plug and play’ system that can save you THOUSANDS of dollars in compressed air costs.
  • Shutoff valve: Years ago, I talked to an engineer at a company that was using one of our Super Air Knives to blow off parts that were passed in front of it by a robot. The robot’s arm turned & rotated the part in the air curtain to ensure it got completely blown off. This only took a couple of seconds, as the operators had ‘tweaked’ the arm movement to do it as quickly as possible. However, there were about 15 seconds between parts…and the Super Air Knife WAS BLOWING THAT WHOLE TIME. Since they’d already told me how great their automation techs were at programming the robot, I suggested that they go one more step and install a Solenoid Valve in the supply line to the Super Air Knife and use the robot’s logic to open it right before the robot got there, and close it right after the robot left. Step Four of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to “turn off the compressed air when it’s not in use,” and by doing so, they reduced the compressed air consumption of this one Super Air Knife by about 80%. THAT’S optimized. If you don’t have existing logic to do this, our EFC Electronic Flow Control will do it for you.
  • The Super Air Knife: At long last, our SCF is ready to fulfill its purpose, and the Super Air Knife will help it do so in the most efficient way possible. It uses that SCF of air, along with all the others that pass through, to entrain a WHOLE BUNCH of SCF’s from the surrounding environment. The amplification ratio for EXAIR Super Air Knives is 40:1, making them the most efficient compressed air-blowing products on the market.
EXAIR Super Air Knives come in lengths from 3″ to 108″, and are available from stock in aluminum, 303SS, 316SS, or PVDF.

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve used the Six Factor Formula for the neutron life cycle in nuclear fission (and honestly, I haven’t missed it all that much), but every day, I use formulas and figures related to:

Just to name a few. If you’d like to “math something out,” (just not the Six Factor Formula, please), give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Compressed Air Wet Receivers and Condensate Drains: Keeping your Systems Running Clean and Efficient

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Compressed air systems are the backbone of countless industries and operations, from powering tools to cleaning, cooling and drying products in process. But behind the scenes, components like the wet receiver and condensate drain play pivotal roles in ensuring these systems deliver clean, reliable air. If you’re involved in facility management, maintenance, or just curious about how compressed air systems tick, understanding these elements can make all the difference. Let’s break it down!

What is a Wet Receiver in Compressed Air Systems?

In a compressed air setup, a receiver is a storage tank that holds pressurized air after it’s been compressed but before it’s distributed to the point of use. A wet receiver, specifically, is positioned downstream of the compressor but before the air dryer or major filtration stages. This means it stores “wet” compressed air—air that still contains moisture, oil, and other contaminants picked up during compression.

The “wet” designation comes from the fact that the air hasn’t been treated yet. As air is compressed, it heats up, and when it cools in the receiver, moisture condenses into liquid water. The wet receiver acts as a buffer, smoothing out pressure fluctuations and giving that moisture a place to settle before the compressed air moves further down the line. Think of it as a staging area that helps protect downstream equipment from surges and contaminants.

Condensate Drain

As air cools in the wet receiver, water vapor turns into liquid condensate—often mixed with traces of oil and dirt. If this condensate isn’t removed, it can corrode the receiver, clog pipes, or damage tools and equipment downstream. The condensate drain is the unsung hero that gets rid of this unwanted liquid.

Typically mounted at the bottom of the wet receiver , the drain can be manual, automatic, or timer-based:

  • Manual drains require someone to open a valve periodically.
  • Automatic float drains open when enough liquid accumulates.
  • Electronic timer drains release condensate at set intervals.

No matter the type, the goal is the same: keep the system dry and free of buildup.

A well-maintained wet receiver and condensate drain mean cleaner air, longer equipment life, and lower operating costs. Wet air can cut tool efficiency by 20% or more, while corrosion from neglected condensate can force early replacements for all downstream equipment. On the flip side, a little attention to these components keeps your compressed air system humming—and your bottom line happy.

Next time you hear the hiss of a pneumatic tool or the hum of a compressor, think about the wet receiver and condensate drain. They’re not flashy, but they’re indispensable.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Photo: Blue Air Receiver Attribution – CC BY-ND 2.0