Tag: heat exchanger

Critical Equipment Needs Reliable Heat Protection

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Electricity and water don’t mix. Electrical and electronic components don’t like many contaminants that can be found in industrial settings, either. Exposure to moisture or dirt are surefire ways to “let the smoke out” – it can be just as bad as letting them overheat. Once that’s happened, replacement of the failed components is usually the only option. THAT can get expensive not only in the cost of the component, but also in the downtime waiting for it to come in…which can be a REAL problem if they’re not in stock.

Luckily, there’s no shortage of cooling devices for electrical panels. They all have certain areas/situations where they’ll work just fine, but most have areas/situations that can cause real problems:

Panel air conditioners work a lot like the a/c in your home or office, and if you’ve ever used window a/c units, they work EXACTLY like those. Since they cool the air as they recirculate it through the space, they have filters to catch any particulate. If the panel isn’t sealed tightly, this filter may very well require regular attention. They also use air from the surrounding environment to condense the hot refrigerant gas:

Evaporator: heat from inside air is transferred to a refrigerant, flashing it from liquid to gas.
Compressor: pressurizes low pressure refrigerant gas.
Condenser: transfers heat from hot, high pressure refrigerant gas to outside air.
Expansion valve: lowers pressure (and temperature) of condensed refrigerant, sending it to the evaporator to continue the heat transfer cycle.

If the condenser coils are exposed to contaminants (dust, oil, chemical vapors, etc.), they’ll be subject to fouling & corrosion, making panel air conditioners more prone to failure in more aggressive environments. Also, since they use air from the environment as a heat sink for the refrigerant, their cooling capacity is inversely affected by the ambient temperature.

Heat Pipe systems also use refrigerant, but they don’t have any moving parts to wear. Since they don’t have a compressor or expansion valve, though, they’re incapable of cooling the panel below ambient temperature. The evaporator fins or coils are also still subject to environmental contamination, so they have the same limitations as a panel a/c system…and are further limited in hot spaces.

Panel fans are easily the least expensive cooling method. They’re usually fitted with filters for the outside air that they move through the enclosure. Like heat pipes, they can’t cool the enclosure to a temperature below ambient for the area, and the filters are still subject to clogging from airborne particulate, and since those filters have to be coarse enough for the fan’s cooling air flow, smaller particulate can still make it inside the panel….along with any vapors or gases that could condense, or worse, corrode components inside the panel. If the fan on a home computer can get as dusty as the one in the photo to the left, imagine how much worse the one on a control panel on a factory floor can get.

Liquid to Air coolers use liquid – the most common being chilled water – for cold fluid flow through coils inside the panel to remove heat, which is then transferred to ambient through a refrigerant chiller, or a fan & radiator. The inside coils are subject to fouling and condensation if the panel isn’t sealed tightly, and the refrigerant chiller has the same limitations as a panel a/c unit. If it uses a fan & radiator, it (like panel fans or heat pipes) can’t cool the panel to less than ambient temperature in the area.

EXAIR Cabinet Coolers have no moving parts and use compressed air as the sole cooling medium, so they’re not affected at all by environmental conditions. When they’re properly installed on a sealed enclosure, the only thing the inside of the enclosure ever sees is clean, cold, moisture-free air. Wherever your panel is, and regardless of the environment, EXAIR has a wide selection of cooling capacities, features, and materials of construction. Consider:

  • Cooling capacities from 275 to 5,600 Btu/hr. Call me if your heat load is outside this range…we can look at customized solutions too.
  • NEMA 12 (IP54), NEMA 4, or NEMA 4X (IP66) ratings.
  • Thermostat Control – Standard, or Electronic Temperature Control.
  • Non-Hazardous Purge for contaminant exclusion on less-than-ideally sealed enclosures.
  • High Temperature models for ambient temperatures from 125°F (52°C) to 200°F (93°C).
  • Side Mount Kits where space is limited above the panel.
  • 316SS construction for particularly aggressive environments.
  • UL Classified systems for hazardous locations: Our HazLoc systems are approved for Class I Div 1, Class II Div 1 & Class III areas, and ATEX systems are approved for Zones 2 & 22.
Inside, outdoors, high temperature, dirt/dust/humidity, corrosive and classified environments are no problem for EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems

If you need heat protection for electrical/electronic panels, EXAIR has solutions. To find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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It’s HOT! Not Just Outside

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

It’s Summer, it’s hot, and just about everywhere that sees the sun here in the US is currently pretty warm. This isn’t breaking news to anyone here in the Midwest, but it is also increasingly muggy and humid. I know this because the condensate drain on the A-Coil within my home HVAC system has been dripping more and more water down through the drain line and into the floor drain. I’ve also been watering my outdoor plants more and more frequently due to the lack of rain we have had the past month. At home, my HVAC system pulls moisture out of the air and lets it condense then pushes it down a drain. Out of sight and out of mind for most homeowners. In a manufacturing plant, that isn’t always the case because many have no climate control for their machine and production areas.

When I was in metal cutting, it was not uncommon for me to walk into a shop during the summer to repair a machine that had a thermal trip. Most of these machines that I worked on had simple air-to-air heat exchangers to cool the electrical cabinets which have a minimum of three variable frequency drives in them as well as a controller, many other relays, and circuits. Most machine shops I went into were also not climate controlled. The machining processes would build a mist and dust throughout the facility which would settle. The fan intakes would often not be maintained, and the cabinets would eventually overheat. Often, rather than cleaning the fans, the operators or maintenance would simply open the electrical panel doors and put a box fan blowing into the open panel, so they could finish cutting their parts.

Whatever you do, DON’T do THIS to your panel.

While this would put the machine back into service it would also pull in all that warm humid air from the shop that was filled with the metal fines, oil mist, and other dirt. This would then blanket the inside of the panel and all the open circuit boards. Some of the drives would even have fans on them from the manufacturer to keep the inside cool which would just internally coat the surfaces with oil, dust and debris. Then, after that job was done, it would just roll into the next job because the “fix” was working just fine. Well, after a while of the machine running like this, the buildup settling onto the boards and internal fans coating the inside of the drives the machine would generally go down again and this time they couldn’t apply the same fix of opening the doors again. This is when I would get the call and have to deliver the bad news that I now have to clean and inspect all the boards and drives. Then, when we would get finished, the cycle would start over unless the customer took to heart that the fans have a much-needed preventative maintenance cycle, or they would have the fans removed and install a Cabinet Cooler System.

The advantage of the Cabinet Cooler System is that the panels stay sealed and maintain their NEMA rating all while receiving less than ideal maintenance intervals. In fact, the Cabinet Cooler itself has no moving parts and the only maintenance is to ensure the compressed air filter is clean and clear. This option would often result in fewer calls for overheated machines. I am fairly certain it may impact the sale of box fans to these machine shops. At the very least, the operators get to keep the fans for cooling themselves off rather than blowing into an electrical enclosure.

If you have seen an open electrical enclosure with fans blowing into it, then you know exactly what I am talking about. I hope you understand that an EXAIR Application Engineer can help you prevent that safety violation as well as a general, all around bad idea for the health of the components inside the cabinet.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Refrigerated Air Dryers

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

Whenever air gets compressed, it reduces the space for the water molecules to remain as a vapor; which causes condensation.  For this, compressed air dryers are an important part of a compressed air system.  They are designed to remove moisture to prevent condensation further downstream in the system.  The three main types of dryers are refrigerated, desiccant, and membrane. For this blog, I will cover the refrigerant-type compressed air dryers.

Compressed air dryers are rated with a dew point rating.  A dew point is the temperature at which the air has a relative humidity of 100%.  Since the air cannot become more saturated with water than 100%RH, water will condense and fall out like “rain”.  You can see this effect during the cool mornings when dew forms on the grass.  Compressed air dryers are designed to reduce the dew point temperature of your compressed air.  For a refrigerant type, they are near the dew point temperature of 38oF (3oC).  Like a refrigerator, they use refrigerant to cool the compressed air.  We cannot go below this temperature as it could form ice inside the dryer.  But, as long as the ambient temperature does not go below 38oF (3oC), liquid water will not be present in the pneumatic system. 

There are two main types of refrigerated air dryers; cycling and non-cycling.  Cycling type refrigerant air dryers will cool a liquid mass, generally a glycol-water mixture, to a set-point and turn off.  The liquid will go through an air-to-liquid heat exchanger to remove the heat from the compressed air.  Referring to the cycling action, when the liquid mass goes above the set point, the refrigeration system will restart and cool the liquid mass again.  The cycling refrigerant air dryers are more expensive, but they are more efficient. 

Non-cycling refrigerant air dryers are more common.  The refrigeration system continues to run through an air-to-air heat exchanger to cool the compressed air.  It is similar to your AC system in your car.  With this type of system, they are more susceptible to the environment, i.e., temperature, elevation, and humidity.  So, adjustments are required for proper installation. 

With both types of refrigerant dryers, the internal compressed air section is very similar.  They will have a filter separator to remove the liquid that is created from the condensation from the cold temperatures.  They also have an additional air-to-air heat exchanger.  This will provide two important features for the refrigerated air dryers.  As the cold air leaves the refrigerant section, it helps to cool the incoming compressed air.  This will make the system more efficient.  And as the hot incoming compressed air helps to warm the cold air leaving the dryer, it will stop the condensation of liquid water on the outside of the pipes.  Like the dew forming on the grass during cool mornings, the same will occur with the compressed air piping system. 

Moisture-laden compressed air can cause issues such as increased wear on the pneumatic tools, the formation of rust in piping and equipment, quality defects in painting processes, and frozen pipes in colder climates.  Regardless of what products you’re using at the point-of-use, a compressed air dryer is undoubtedly a critical component of the compressed air system.  Delivering clean, dry air to your EXAIR Products or other pneumatic devices will help to ensure a long life out of your equipment.  If you wish to discuss more about your compressed air system or how EXAIR can provide a more efficient way to use that compressed air, an Application Engineer will be happy to assist you. 

John Ball, CCASS


Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Photo: Grass morning dew by RuslanSikunov.  Pixabay License

Heat Recovery from an Air Compressor

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On the whole most of us are quite aware of the considerable savings that can be accomplished by wise use and recovery of energy.   One way that a plant can save substantially is to capture the energy that an electric motor adds to the compressed air from the air compressor.  As much as 80% to 93% of the electrical energy used by an industrial air compressor is converted to heat.  A properly designed heat recovery system can capture anywhere between 50% to 90% of this energy and convert it to useful energy.

The heat recovered is sufficient in most cases to use in supplemental ways such as heating water and space heating, however generally there is not enough energy to produce steam directly.

IngersollRand_R-series-R110
Ingersoll Rand Rotary Screw Compressor

 

Packaged air cooled rotary screw compressor lend themselves easily to heat recovery, supplemental heating or other hot air uses very well due to their enclosed design.  Since ambient air is directed across the compressors aftercooler and lubricant cooler where the heat can be easily collected from both the compressed air and the lubricant.

Packaged coolers are normally enclosed cabinets that feature integral heat exchangers and fans.  This type of system only needs ducting and an additional fan to minimize back pressure on the air compressors cooling fan.  This arrangement can be controlled with a simple thermostat operated vent on a hinge and when the extra heat is not required it can be ducted outside the facility.

The recovered energy can be used for space heating, industrial drying, preheating aspirated air for oil burners or  other applications requiring warm air.  Typically there is approximately 50,000 Btu/Hr of energy available from each 100 SCFM of capacity (at full load).  The temperature differential is somewhere between 30°F – 40°F above the air inlet temperature and the recovery efficiency is commonly found to be 80% – 90%.

We all know the old saying there is “no free lunch” and that principle applies here.  If the supply air is not from outside the plant a drop in the static pressure could occur in the compressor cabinet thereby reducing the efficiency of the compressor.  If you choose to use outside air for makeup, you might need some return air to keep the air above freezing to avoid compressor damage.

Heat recovery is generally not utilized with water cooled compressors since an extra stage of heat exchange is required and the efficiency of recovering that heat is normally in the 50% – 60% range.

To calculate annual energy savings:

Energy Savings (Btu/Yr) = 0.80 * compressor bhp * 2,545 Btu/bhp-hour * hours of operation.

If we consider a 50 HP compressor:

.080 * 50bhp * 2,545 Btu/bhp-hour * 2080 hrs/year =  211,744,000 Btu/yr

Where 0.80 is the recoverable heat as a percentage of the units output, 2,545 is the conversion factor.

Cost savings in dollars per year = [(energy savings in Btu/yr)/Btu/fuel) x ($/unit fuel)]/primary heater efficiency.

If you would like to discuss saving money by reducing compressed air demand and/or any EXAIR product,  I would enjoy hearing from you…give me a call.

Steve Harrison
Application Engineer
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Photo courtesy of Ingersoll Rand CC BY 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32093890