In the UK each year thousands of products are sold to dry compressed air. One of the most common is the refrigeration dryer which can achieve a 3°C pressure dew point. This means that provided the compressed air system stays above this temperature there will be no further condensation of water out of the compressed air. The fridge type is popular because it is adequate for general purpose compressed air and is relatively low cost, easy to maintain and well supported by manufacturers and distributors. This piece of equipment is often vital to the production in terms of both output and quality.
So why do purchasers of these products treat them as commodities? Are all fridge dryers the same and price and delivery should be the top if not only criteria when deciding which brand to select? “Certainly not!” says Chris Norris, Service Manager at BEKO TECHNOLOGIES. “What purchasers should be looking at is first and foremost, what dew point is required, then what is the life cost, reliability, maintenance cost and warranty offered.” So if we take a look at each of these in more detail we can see that there can be big differences between offerings for this important product.To select the dew point is usually fairly simple. Machinery manufacturers will often specify the dew point required for correct operation or even better give an ISO 8573 classification which includes permitted particulates and hydrocarbon contents. If this information is not to hand then the very easy way is to call BEKO or an equivalent compressed air consultant and advice will be given based on many years of experience. There are some industry norms and specifications too, so if you are a food manufacturer and wish to comply with the British Retail Consortium/British Compressed Air Society Code of Practice then compressed air not coming into contact with the product can be 3°C pressure dew point but would need to -
In the UK each year thousands of products are sold to dry compressed air. One of the most common is the refrigeration dryer which can achieve a 3°C pressure dew point. This means that provided the compressed air system stays above this temperature there will be no further condensation of water out of the compressed air. The fridge type is popular because it is adequate for general purpose compressed air and is relatively low cost, easy to maintain and well supported by manufacturers and distributors. This piece of equipment is often vital to the production in terms of both output and quality. 
