Tag: wet receiver

Wet Receiver Tanks: Why Use Them, and How to Size Them

Published on by John BallLeave a comment
9500-60 Receiver Tank

Compressed air is used to operate pneumatic systems within a facility, and it can be separated into three categories; the supply side, the demand side, and the distribution system.  The supply side will include the air compressor, after-cooler, dryer, and receiver tank.  It produces and treats the compressed air before it travels into the distribution system.  They are generally located in a compressor room somewhere in the corner of the plant.  In this blog, I would like to cover the wet receiver tank that is used as part of the supply side.

What is a receiver tank?  I like to compare pneumatic systems to electrical systems.  The receiver tanks store the pneumatic energy produced by an air compressor like a capacitor stores electrical energy.  The reason for this is to have a ready source of energy to increase efficiency and speed through the ebbs and flows of demand. 

A wet receiver, like the name imparts, is positioned downstream of the air compressor but before the air dryer.  A dry receiver would be located after the air dryer.  Some systems will utilize both types.  With the wet receiver, you remove some of the load of water that reaches the air dryer, which helps to make the air dryers more efficient and extends the life cycle.  When ambient air is compressed, the humidity will condense, making water.  Also, as air cools in the wet receiver, water vapor turns into liquid condensate—often mixed with traces of oil and dirt from the air compressor. To get rid of the contaminants, a condensate drain will be required to get rid of this unwanted liquid.

For sizing the wet receiver, it is roughly 1 to 3 gallons per cfm for a compressor.  So, for a 100 SCFM air compressor, you should have a tank that is roughly 100 to 300 gallons.  If you have large fluctuations on the demand side, you can also use Equation 1 below to calculate the minimum tank volume.  If you are using wet and dry receiver tanks in your system, you can divide the total volume.  The wet receiver tank should be one-third of the volume, and the dry receiver tank should be two-thirds of the volume. 

Equation 1:

V = T * C * (Pa) / (P1-P2)

Where:

V – Volume of receiver tank (cubic feet)

T – Time interval between pressure limits (minutes)

C – Air demand for system (cubic feet per minute)

Pa – Absolute atmospheric pressure (PSIA)

P1 – Upper Pressure limit (PSIG)

P2 – Lower Pressure limit (PSIG)

Compressed air systems are the backbone of countless industries and operations.  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 wish to discuss more ways to optimize your compressed air system, EXAIR has Application Engineers that would like to help you. 

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

Compressed Air Pipe

How to Handle High-Demand Events with Compressed Air Systems

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

When production ramps up, deadlines tighten, or seasonal demand spikes, your compressed air system becomes one of the most heavily relied-on utilities in your facility. High-demand events, whether planned or unexpected, can create inefficiencies, consume excessive energy, and create bottlenecks across your entire operation.

The good news? With the right forethought and the right equipment, you can maintain performance, protect uptime, and even reduce operating costs during these peak loads. EXAIR’s engineered compressed air products are specifically designed to help manufacturers meet high-demand challenges without compromising efficiency or output.

Start with System Efficiency: Reduce Air Consumption at the Point of Use

During a high-demand event, every SCFM counts. One of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to free up capacity is to replace outdated, inefficient blowoff methods. Open pipes, drilled holes, and homemade nozzles waste tremendous amounts of compressed air and can violate OSHA safety standards. EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles, Safety Air Guns, and Super Air Knives are engineered to:

  • Reduce air consumption
  • Maintain or increase blowoff force
  • Operate safely under OSHA dead-end pressure limits
  • Lower overall system load, freeing capacity for critical processes

By upgrading just a few high-usage blowoff points, facilities often recover enough compressed air to handle peak demand without purchasing additional equipment.

Engineered solutions (like EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products) are the efficient, quiet, and safe choice.

Stabilize System Pressure During Peak Use

Pressure drops become more common when demand spikes. That decline leads to reduced quality, slower cycle times, and even unplanned downtime. EXAIR products are engineered to deliver more output force with less compressed air. For example:

  • Super Air Amplifiers entrain up to 25 parts room air for every 1 part of compressed air, multiplying output while drastically reducing consumption.
  • Super Air Knives produce a laminar, high-velocity sheet of air—even at lower pressures—helping extend system stability during peak loads.

These technologies lighten the load on your compressor while maintaining performance at the point of use.

Add Extra Compressed Air Storage to Handle Peak Demand

One of the most overlooked strategies in high-demand planning is preloading your system with stored compressed air. Storage acts as a buffer, preventing pressure drops and reducing the load on your compressor during short, intense spikes.

  • Provides supplemental airflow during short bursts of high demand
  • Reduces compressor cycling, improving efficiency and equipment life
  • Helps maintain system pressure and air quality
  • Offers a cost-effective alternative to purchasing an additional compressor

How to Integrate Storage Into Your Strategy

  • Add receiver tanks downstream near high-consumption equipment
  • Use strategic storage at point-of-use
  • Pair storage with efficient EXAIR blowoff, cooling, or conveying products to reduce total system demand.

Pro tip: If your system is already stretched thin, combining extra storage with EXAIR air-saving solutions often eliminates the need for new compressors entirely.

High Demand Doesn’t Have to Mean High Stress

High-demand events are inevitable in manufacturing—but system strain, energy waste, and reduced performance don’t have to be. By optimizing efficiency, stabilizing pressure, preparing with modular tools, and using engineered products, your facility can handle peak demand confidently and cost-effectively.

EXAIR products are purpose-built for these challenges, offering efficient, OSHA-compliant, high-performance solutions that help your compressed air system keep up with whatever you throw at it.

If you’d like to help identify opportunities in your facility, explore EXAIR’s full line of compressed air-saving products. Or reach out to a Application engineer at techelp@exair.com.

Jordan Shouse, 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

How Compressed Air Storage Can Help You Handle any High Demand Event

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

You designed your compressed air system to handle the volume you need for your plant, but your continued growth has started to tax that system with some high intermittent demand.

Managing high intermittent demand in the compressed air system requires evaluation of several elements of your system:

  1. Air compressor controls.
  2. System master controls.  
  3. Piping and air velocity.
  4. Storage: wet, dry, and at points of use.
  5. Identifying and examining large air users.
  6. Designing with flexibility and the future in mind.

Today I’m going to cover #4, more specifically installing a secondary storage tank!

Utilizing a secondary receiver tank to mitigate the impact of larger volume-consuming events is a common and useful strategy that many compressed air professionals will pursue. In this kind of scenario, the receiver tank acts much like a capacitor in a camera flash. A camera battery charges a capacitor which then dumps its charge into the flash bulb when you take a photo for a notably bright flash, which is what one generally wants from your camera flash.

In this same way, a receiver tank acts like a capacitor to “dump” the air volume needed to make a compressed air device work at its design pressure and flow for some prescribed period of time. In situations like this, the high demand does need to be an intermittent one so that the tank can then re-charge from the compressor system and be ready for the next air use event. This means that certain calculations need to be made to ensure that the receiver tank is sized properly to provide the desired effect.

How do you size a receiver tank? Here’s the calculation to determine the proper size:

Let’s consider an example of an Air Amplifier solution. A customer wants to blow on hot metal parts coming out of an oven to cool them down as an “air quench”. We evaluate the application and determine that (2) 2″ Super Air Amplifiers will provide the right amount of flow. Those units are going to operate at 60 PSIG to provide the desired effect. (2) 2″ Super Air Amplifiers will consume 24.5 SCFM @ 60 PSIG. Each batch of parts comes out of the oven at a rate of one batch every 5 minutes. They want to provide the necessary cooling for a total of 30 seconds to have the air quench effect. So, every 5 minutes, the Air Amplifiers will be blowing for 1/2 minute. Each “on” event consumes 12.25 Standard Cubic Feet of air. We then have 4 minutes, 30 seconds left to replenish the tank.

The last piece of information we need to know is the system pressure for the compressed air header feeding the tank. The system pressure is 120 PSIG. And so, our calculation looks like this:

V =  0.5 min. x 24.5 rate of flow x (60 PSIG + 14.5 PSIA)
120 PSIG – 60PSIG
V =  913
60 PSIG
V = 15.2 ft.3

There are 7.48 gallons to a cubic foot, so our receiver tank in this example would be
15.2 ft.3 x 7.48 = 114 gallons.

Given the fact that receiver tanks are made in certain, standard sizes, a 120 gallon tank or two, 60 gallon tanks piped in upstream of the compressed air load would be appropriate for this application.

As a further note, for example, the refill rate for the tank(s) would need to be a minimum of 2.72 SCFM to get the volume replenished in time for the next event. This is less than 1 HP of industrial air compressor to maintain such a flow rate to refill the tank.

With some reasonably simple math to determine tank size, and a willingness to pursue this kind of air delivery solution, you can implement that compressed air solution at a fraction of the cost compared to a new compressor.

With some reasonably simple math to determine tank size, and a willingness to pursue this kind of air delivery solution, you can implement that compressed air solution at a fraction of the cost compared to a new compressor.

If you have any questions please reach out! We have a full team of Applications Engineers in the office M-F!

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

Send me an email
Find us on the Web 
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Twitter: @EXAIR_JS