Why Your Separator Always Blocks?
Welcome to Nanxiang “Compressor Academy”.
Today we are going to analyze some cases about separator blockages. It is known to all that the separator of the air compressor can operate fluently when there are no deposits in it. But it seems hard for it to operate in a perfect situation all the time. In order to avoid the failure, we’ve summarized some reasons that may cause the separator blockage and their solutions.
(1) Qualified air filter, oil filter, and engine oil are not used, and one or more of them exist. An airfilter with bad filtration accuracy will prevent some dust particles in the air from being blocked, and will directly enter the air compressor system.
The oil filter and oil are overloaded and cause blockage; some of the impurities, oil oxides, and worn metal particles was intercepted on the oil filter layer due to the bad filtration accuracy of the oil filter, and the other part of the impurities continuously circulates in the motor until it rises to the oil and stay in the oil filter layer after separation, causing the oil being blocked prematurely. Engine oil with bad oxidation resistance should not be used. Even if the working time is short, it produces carbon deposits and jelly, which will block the oil.
(2) The surrounding environment of air compressor. There are corrosive gases in the surrounding environment of the air compressor, such as sulfide, isoamyl acetate and cleaning chemicals, etc., volatilize in the air in some occasions. The high temperature of the machine itself expedites the oxidation of the oil.
Once these gases enter the air compressor system and react chemically with the oil, will result in carbon deposits and sludge, some of the impurities enter the oil circulation system and intercepted by the oil filter, and other of the impurities, together with the oil-gas mixture, rises to the oil. The oil-gas mixture rises to the oil content.
These impurities stay on the oil filter paper, blocking the filter holes, and the resistance of the oil content gradually increases when the gas passes through the oil content, causing the oil content needs to be replaced in advance in a short time. If it is not suitable for the operating environment, you can choose a heavy-duty air filter or guide the suction of the air compressor to a place with clean air.
The solid particles in the compressed air stay in the filter layer after passing through the oil core, which causes the pressure difference (resistance) of the oil core continuously increases. With the usage time increases of the oil separation core, when the pressure difference of the oil separation core reaches 0.08 to 0.1MPa, the filter core must be replaced, otherwise it will increase the operating cost of the air compressor (power consumption) or insufficient pipeline pressure.
(3) Excessive moisture on the oil filter material causes the filter material swells and shrinks the micropores, which reduces the effective separation area of the oil, causes an increase in oil resistance and block in advance.
(4) There is leakage in the pipeline between the air filter and the suction of the main motor. The common causes of leakage are as below: the air filter is not installed properly; the contact area of the air filter assembly is rough; there’s some dirt attached to the contact surface of the air filter, causing leakage; the elastic contact pad on the air filter surface is skewed; the fracture of the air filter or air filter assembly.