Compressed air filters differentiate high-quality clean air and dirty air that will ruin your equipment, especially pneumatic tools and other point-of-use equipment. Unfiltered air can be filled with dust, oil, rust, moisture, and other contaminants that can harm the individual and the air system. In traditional air systems, the air passes through two different levels of filtration.
The first layer removes larger particulates and water that remain in the air stream; once the larger particles have been removed, the air moves to the second step of filtration, where it passes through a much more tightly woven mesh that captures fine particulates.
Given the size of microns, they are typically used to remove contaminates smaller than we can see. This gives the filtration the look of having almost no holes in it. Even though this slows down the air, it is vital for air quality. Clean air comes at the cost of speed, but it is necessary.
Make sure you have the right-sized filters essential for proper air filtration. Another critical factor to remember is your components’ overall CFM and sizing. Please ensure that your filter is adequately sized for your compressed air system.
Regarding your filters, ensuring they are appropriately sized and set up for adequate filtration is the top priority. Without making sure the filters will work with your system, you can end up costing yourself time and money that could have been saved by figuring out what your system needs.
When it comes to air filters, sizing is just as crucial as filtration. If the air filter is not sized correctly, it can cause crazy pressure drops, rapid clogging of the element, or shut down the airflow.
If the CFM is too high for the filter, it won’t be able to do its job correctly, and if it is too slow, it is a waste to have a filter built for more volume than you are outputting.
If the filter in front is smaller than the filter behind it, the likelihood of clogging increases exponentially, not to mention it makes the second filter have no purpose. If the particulates made it through the smaller filter, the larger one would not be much help.
Coalescing filters are used to separate liquids and gases out from one another and into separate units. Some examples include water/gas, gas/oil, or fuel/gas that need to be separated either for purification or for commercialization.
Particulate filters remove solid particles from a liquid or a gas. The size of the particle’s removed depends on the grade of the filter, with filter grades running from .01 micron up to 200 micron. Particulate filters work from the outside in. The unclean liquid or gas flows into the filter, and then the clean liquid or gas emerges.
Sometimes called a moisture trap, a separator removes only liquid water from compressed air lines. Within a separator are usually impingement baffles, wire mesh, cyclonic devices, or air filter elements. These features force liquid to fall to a low point in the container.
The adsorbing air filters are designed to remove vapors from the air line that cannot be removed by a coalescing filter. They produce air that is virtually free of oil and hydrocarbons as required by industries such as food processing, electronics, and instrumentation.
Check out this video on air filters by Atlas Copco if you want to learn even more about filtration. There is no better place than the source when it comes to this type of information, so make sure to pay attention.
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