Anyone who wants to ensure maximum process reliability and machine availability must include proper compressed air preparation as part of the system right from the planning stage. Because a clean compressed air supply without particles, water or oil helps to avoid malfunctions in pneumatic components, increases the service life of the components and reduces machine failure as well as downtime. Festo offers you systems that ensure compressed air purity in accordance with ISO 85731:20110.
Untreated compressed air contains contamination in the form of particles, water and oil. Water and oil can either be liquid or gaseous and change from one state to another within the compressed air system. None of these three contaminants is present in a compressed air system in their pure form; they form a mixture. The composition of this mixture can vary greatly at different times and in different places in the system. For example, water can collect in branch lines or particles can become deposited in dead spaces over time, and then be suddenly propelled along by a pressure surge.
Each cubic metre of compressed air contains millions of dirt particles, significant quantities of water and oil and even heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury. If these are not filtered out, there can be no guarantee that the system components will continue to work properly in the long term. What's more, these hazardous materials considerably impair product quality. Correct compressed air preparation is therefore vital in order to reduce machine breakdowns and downtime and guarantee process and product reliability.
Poorly prepared compressed air causes malfunctions such as:
Possible effects on the user and machine:
Our engineering tool can help you choose the right combination of service unit components for your compressed air preparation. The software tool helps you to correctly configure a service unit. Enter the required compressed air quality on this page, either using your application, an ISO code or via the free filter selection.