Without an air line filter - water, oil, and dirt can cause major damage to pneumatic tools, destroy factory equipment, ruin a paint job, and even contaminate food in a production facility.
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Proper air treatment is critical to the health of your air system, and compressor filters are an inexpensive investment compared to a costly repair/replacement job.
Shop Air Line FiltersTo better understand how these filters work, we will break them down into 8 main components.
As air enters, the internal cap forces it into a downward spiral. Just be sure to size the inlet appropriately for your compressor. You should never use a smaller filter on a larger line.
The filter cap directs the flow of air through the filter. An arrow on the outside of the filter indicates the direction of air flow, and should not be installed backwards.
In order for the air to be discharged from the filter, it must follow the air path. The air path consists of entering a cyclonic phase and passing through the filter element.
The filter discharge is the orifice through which the air leaves the filter. The sizing of the discharge should match the inlet size. An under-sized filter will restrict air flow.
The filter element is the part that actually filters the air. The filter element catches particulates you wish to remove from the air. As the filter does its job, it becomes clogged with those particulates.
Once the filter is clogged, it will need to be cleaned or replaced. If CFM (cubic feet per minute) decreases, it may be due to a clog in the filter element. Using too fine of a filter element can cause more frequent clogging.
The filter bowl makes up the largest visible part of the air compressor filter. It connects to the cap housing by either threading into it or twisting and locking into place.
The filter quiet zone is a zone at the bottom of the filter bowl where contaminants, oil, and water are collected. There is usually a horizontal barrier that hangs down from the bottom of the filter element that prevents debris from becoming re-entrained in the air.
Eventually, the water, oil, and debris in the bottom of the filter bowl must be drained. Some filters come with manual drains, requiring you to periodically remove the plug and drain the contents.
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Other filters come with float-operated drains or electric auto drains. Failure to regularly open and drain the collected water and debris will cause the water to rise above the barrier and become re-entrained.
Air line filters are measured by the size of the particles they can catch. These particulates are so small they have to be measured in microns (1 micron = one-millionth of a meter). For comparison, a human hair is about 100 microns across and a red blood cell is 8 microns in diameter.
If you are using fine particulate filters, let's say a 5-micron filter, the element inside will trap seemingly invisible particulates smaller than a red blood cell! To avoid immediate clogging of the unimaginably tiny holes in the filter element, it's best to have a general-purpose filter installed upstream to catch larger particulates. Doing so will save you from frequently replacing the small-sized filters, or tossing them altogether!
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It may not be immediately obvious, but each cubic foot of compressed air can contain millions of dirt particles, water and oil. This contamination of the air is most noticeable when you are using your compressor for something which demands a fine finish – paint spraying, for example. Unfiltered (or when your filter isn’t performing as it should) you’ll notice the spray finish has a dappled appearance, caused by dirt and water in the air flow. Filter such particles out, and you’ll find the finish improves enormously.
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But filtering isn’t only required where the application demands a fine finish. Particles in the air can cause additional wear on the compressor and your air tools. They can coat valves and other parts of the machine. They use more energy and cost more to run (because the motor has to work harder to force the air around the system). And they increase the likelihood of a breakdown and/or the frequency of servicing.
We have spoken about separating oil and water from your compressed air system previously, so in this piece we shall focus on filtering solids (although a filter may also remove some oil and condensate).
• Particulate (or coarse) filters scrub the air of contaminants measuring 5 to 40 microns
• Fine and micro filters remove particles smaller than 1 micron
• Activated carbon filters capture oil vapours
• Sterile filters scrub the air of germs and would typically be used in pharmaceutical, medical, food or beverage applications
As you might expect, the tiering of filters is important. Place a micro filter upstream of a coarse filter and it will immediately become clogged, restricting air flow and reducing the effectiveness of the compressor. Instead, the coarse filter should come first in the air stream, collecting the larger particles before enabling the micro and other filters to do their jobs.
Like the filter in your coffee machine or vacuum cleaner, as particles gather, so the machine performs less effectively. It’s important, therefore, to replace filters periodically. Precisely how often the filter will need replacing depends on the compressor, the filter and the application. You compressor may be fitted with a sensor which may monitor air flow at the filter and alert you when pressure starts to drop due to clogging.
Our maintenance service contracts ensure filters are replaced before they become clogged enough to reduce performance, or impact energy costs and compressor wear. To talk to us about keeping your air compressor equipment in prime condition, please call us on 243 , or contact us.
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