Corporate Buyers Guide

Part of any compressed air system is the removal of the condensate and the oil/water separator. To meet today’s environmental laws, the oil content in water being discharged is strictly regulated..

The common elements of all separators are a large container where the condensate rests at atmospheric pressure to allow the oil to rise to the surface where it can be skimmed off. The water is then drawn from the bottom of the container and flows through an activated carbon filter before being discharged. The oil content remaining in the water is in the 15 to 20 ppm range.

The size of the separator needed is based on the air flow capacity of the compressor, the type of compressor (piston or rotary), the type of oil used (mineral or synthetic), and the climate at the location. The local regulations regarding the level of oil permitted will also influence the size of separator and or if additional treatment is needed.

The lowly oil/water separator is the least costly item in the compressed air loop, but with today’s green mentality is taking on more significance.

Thermal imagers are cameras taking pictures in the IR wavelength region instead of visible light. The typical sensor is a 3/8 inch chip with 360 x 240 focal plane array pixels. The color of the image ranges from cool objects, blue, to hot objects, bright orange. A color scale alongside the display provides a conversion of color to temperature.

Today’s imagers use LCD displays. Depending on the options coming with an imager, point temperature measurements and other analytical determinations are possible.

A variety of temperature ranges are available. One of the early applications of IR imaging was in heat loss detection of buildings. Here a temperature range of 0 to 200 C was sufficient. For industrial applications, imaging to over 2000 C is possible..

IR cameras are available as monitoring devices where a fixed image is displayed at a remote location. They are specific in design to suit the application. The thermal imager is portable and can be used for a variety of application.