Most of EXAIR’s line of Intelligent Compressed Air Products have no moving parts and require no maintenance. The caveat to the “no maintenance” aspect is proper filtration at the point of use. Many products air demand products like nozzles, air knives and air amplifiers have very tight orifices that could get clogged from any contaminants such as particulate, condensate, and lubricant. Oil and dirt could build up inside of any of these products and keep them from working properly. EXAIR recommends point of use filtration to be installed just upstream of any EXAIR product for this purpose.
Oil is commonly present in a compressed air supply, whether that’s intentional or not can vary. Many air compressors are oil lubricated by a constant supply of oil, inevitably some of this oil ends up in the air supply. As the piston rings wear, more oil is permitted to pass by and ends up in the distribution system. While this is kept to a minimum with proper maintenance, it is impossible to prevent unless using an oil-free compressor.
Sometimes oil is present in the air supply intentionally, many pneumatic devices require a precise amount of oil to keep the internal moving parts lubricated. In the case of any EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product, we recommend particulate free, condensate free, and oil free air.
In order to remove oil from the air supply, EXAIR offers a line of Oil Removal Filters. These coalescing style filters are used to remove very fine water vapor as well as any residual oil. These filters are highly recommended to be installed just prior to any dryer that contains a media that would be compromised by any lubricant passing through it. Coalescing filters utilize an element typically made up of glass fibers that “coalesce”, or combine, the fine water vapor and oil aerosols until the droplet size becomes large enough that it drops off into the bowl or filter housing. With a coalescing filter, the most common cause of pressure drop increase is due to particulate clogging the filter element. Because of this, a particulate filter should always be installed just prior to any coalescing filters.
Without any filtration, any oil in the air supply will pass through the point of use device and into or on to your product or process. With the elimination of this problem such a simple solution, don’t neglect proper air preparation to ensure you’re delivering clean, oil-free air to all of your Intelligent Compressed Air Products.
Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD
