Whilst the aluminium heat exchangers commonly used in compressed air dryers do provide an effective heat exchange system, they can also fail if 'frozen out' or overloaded when contaminated with pipeline rust and debris.
“Situations like this are often caused by poor pre-filtration maintenance, says Artic Driers International chief executive officer, Allen Cockfield. “Furthermore, aluminium exchangers are particularly susceptible to internal corrosion and failure caused by air compressors drawing aggressive chemicals.
Cockfield elaborates, “Many heat exchanger designs using aluminium have a complex cast. Often they are fabricated to have tight, complex air paths. This easily leads to the blocking of air passageways if pre-filtration is not consistently monitored and maintained. To compound the initial problem, maintenance of the air system is sometimes jeopardised by the use of untrained personnel to service the air drying system. The upshot is that the blocked heat exchanger forces all air compressors off-load, thereby starving factories of air and wasting expensive electrical power. This failure can then progress to the heat exchanger over-cooling and thereby blocking the system with ice. The next failure is the leaking of Freon into the compressed air circuit. The net result is normally replacement of the dryer.”
To deal with this scenario Artic Driers has launched an alternative range of dryers to the South African market. The new HX series dryers are fitted with a stainless steel heat exchanger that promises to eliminate problems associated with coastal corrosion, air path blockages and chemical attacks. Models are available in air and water cooled versions from 2 to 42 cubic metres/min.
The HX series is manufactured by SPX, a subsidiary of Jemaco Flair, South Korea. Produced entirely at SPX’s new production facility, the unit is claimed to be extremely robust, very large air paths and an efficient heat transfer ratio. Depending on the flow capacity required by the user, the heat exchanger sets are supplied with either internal condensate trap areas or external condensate separator tanks. Every heat exchanger conforms to both CSA hydrostatic test standards and the CAGI ADF 100 test (which includes a Helium test).
Cockfield concludes, “The HX dryers set new levels of reliability. They have already implemented them in extreme applications for South African clients. The units have proven to be reliable and effective despite the hot environmental conditions.”
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