| |NOVEMBER 20219drying compressed air since 1970s making the process most effective and superior. Compressed air filters using pleated borosilicate glass fibre have been in use ever since with advent of oil injected Screw Air Compressors, as re-sidual oil from these Screw compressors are mostly in the form of mist and aerosols.Inorder to remove these miniscule particles of oil, depth filters were used wherein borosilicate glass fibre in matrix form was employed.Oil vapours and odour in the compressed air are ab-sorbed using versatile material called Activated carbon. WHY IS THERMAL ENGINEERING NEEDED IN REFRIGERATION-BASED AIR DRYERSSpecifications of Compressed air Dryers and testing meth-ods are specified by ISO 8173:2007. It shows the standard rating parameters of in defining the performance of an air dryer, performance tests that need to be conducted and specifies the test set up for measuring various parame-ters such as Pressure Dew Point, flow rate, pressure drop, power consumption, system air loss, outlet temperature; noise emission.We could witness the art of thermal engineering in the design of Refrigeration based Compressed air dryers that one would be astonished to see the compactness of the dry-ers which occupy least footprint and the enhance efficiency with which it operates. These dryers are the most energy ef-ficient as Compact Aluminium brazed plate heat exchangers are used to transfer the heat and then get the moisture in the air condensed. The cold air from the evaporator is passed inside the precooler minimising usage of external source of energy. These dryers are PLC based and can be controlled remotely using communication protocol making the life of the utility engineers at the factory much easy. The functions of the dryers are remotely monitored from the dryer manu-facturers from their service stations.Major innovation has also seen in the Adsorption dryers utilising the heat of the compression of the Air Compressor. Adsorption dryers make use of desiccants where moisture adsorption and desorption are reversible process. The heat of the compression is utilised for the desorption process making the operation cost drying practically nil. Though the capital investment is higher compared to the Refrigeration based dryers, the cost of ownership over a specified period justifies usage these advance featured dryers.WHY TO BE PRUDENT AND JUDICIOUS SELECTION OF THE TECHNOLOGYAs the options and choices are aplenty in the market space, one should be prudent in choosing the products on the cost of ownership over a period time and considering the value of the engineering that it provides. Compressed air as a utility could be of immense value in cost saving provided the selec-tion of the technology is based on the cost of generation of the compressed air and the purity that calls for considering the environment in which the manufacturing unit is located.In a tropical country like India, where the ambient con-ditions are much higher compared to the western countries, the specifically designed products suiting the Indian Condi-tions would make much more sense compared to a product designed for colder ambient conditions. When it comes to Air Conditioners, the models are different for the same heat load, say 1.5 TR for Indian and the Middle East market.The same is the case with Refrigeration based Air Dry-ers as the condensing temperature of the Air Dryers have a bearing on the sizing of the Air Dryer and subsequently on the power consumption which is the recurring cost.An Air Dryer designed for the European conditions un-der perform in the Indian environment conditions if one were to follow the Standard ISO 8573.1:2010. OUR COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO SPREAD TECHNOLOGYMicro, Small and Medium Industries are the drivers of the economy of any country. This fact has been established in different parts of the world it is true in the Indian context as well. MSMEs are adept in developing smart technologies and they co-operate with other manufacturers who use their machines smart. It could be an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)tie-up that results in bulk manufacturing products at which in turn helps the MSMEs make their prod-ucts competitive in a fiercely competitive market. Organisations are looking forward to Industry 4.0 to get the competitive edge in their area of operations by inte-grating Autonomous robots, System Integration, Internet of Things, Simulation, Additive Manufacturing, Cloud comput-ing, Big Data Analysis and above all Cybersecurity.The 21st Century business calls for innovative and smart manufacturing processes that would employ sensors and predict failures so that remedial measures can employed to make the products reliable yet competitive. K S Sudhakaran
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