There are only a few things that can have an adverse effect on EXAIR‘s Intelligent compressed air products. If you supply clean, condensate free compressed air to our products they will last a long long time. Most compressor systems have large dryers and filters for the air at the source, these are necessary, but are they enough? Most of the time that answer is a big NO. The 2 main types of industrial air compressors are Reciprocating, and Rotary Screw compressors. Spoiler alert – this is why you need an Oil Filter at each point of use…
With a Reciprocating and a Rotary Screw Compressor, oil is used to lubricate them. When that oil makes it past the main separator filter and into the discharge piping, that is called Oil Carry-Over. Oil Carry-Over is typically caused by one of these top 10 reasons (no specific order); 1) too much oil in the reservoir 2) Low temperature 3) malfunctioning filter separator 4) the scavenge line (oil return line) is clogged 5) oil has degraded over time 6) Worn out scraper rings 7) Worn out liner 8) Light load on the compressor 9) wrong oil type 10) Faulty minimum pressure valve
The older your compressor, the more likely that one or more of these maintenance issues happen. And unfortunately, just like you and I, these systems keep getting older, honestly I wish I could get an oil change and a tune up from time to time to perform better, maybe get a few spare parts replaced? But I digress…
Here is a question for you. How confident are you that the maintenance on your compressor is always at 100%? I do not mean this as questioning your maintenance staff, plans, or follow through… Well yeah I kind of do. Things happen, things get overlooked, missed, people change, things get lost, processes change, too many chiefs, and so many more reasons why the maintenance may get missed on occasion. After all, when was the last time you changed the oil in your car on time, or at the exact mile? Life happens, things get missed. This is a main reason why engineering best practices recommends that you install point of use Filter separators and Air and Oil Removal Filters to add that extra layer of protection.
I am primarily focused on our Oil Removal Filters in this blog, but the Filter Separators are extremely important too. They both are designed to be installed in line, set up between the compressor and the compressed air tool you are using, generally within close proximity to the end use product like a Super Air Knife or Vortex Tube. Our Filter Separators give us a first line of defense with a 5 micron filter element, removing water, dirt, and particles. The Oil Filter then filters that air with a 0.03 micron to remove the remaining oil and these other submicron particles. If you would like to see a video of exactly how this is set up and how these work please click here.
I like to think of these filters as small little insurance policies. A few dollars up front will save you a lot of money down the road if something goes awry. Please feel free to contact me, or any of the application engineers for any questions and these filters, or any of our intelligent compressed air products.
Thank you for stopping by,
Brian Wages
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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