The working principle of air dryer is mainly based on adsorption drying and refrigeration drying.
● Working principle of adsorption dryer
The adsorption dryer uses the principle of pressure swing adsorption. When wet air passes through the adsorbent, the moisture is adsorbed by the adsorbent to obtain dry air. The specific process is as follows:
Adsorption process: The humid air discharged by the air compressor enters one of the two towers (operating tower) through the air valve, and the moisture is absorbed by the adsorbent and dried. The whole cycle standard takes 10 minutes, and each tower runs for 5 minutes. While one tower is working, the other tower is in a regeneration state.
Regeneration process: During the regeneration process, part of the dry air in the operating tower enters the non-operating tower through the regeneration air volume regulating valve, and the moisture in the tower is brought to the atmosphere through the muffler. Its gas consumption during operation is 12% of the equipment's processing capacity.
● Working principle of refrigeration dryer
The refrigeration dryer uses the principle of cooling air and lowering the air temperature to condense the moisture in the wet air from the air to obtain dry air. The specific process is as follows:
Cooling process: After the humid and high-temperature compressed air flows into the precooler for heat dissipation, it enters the evaporator for heat exchange with the refrigerant. The heat in the compressed air is taken away by the refrigerant, the air is quickly cooled, and the water condenses into water droplets after reaching the saturation temperature.
Separation process: The condensed water forms water droplets after condensation, and the water and air are separated by high-speed rotation of the air-water separator, and the separated water is discharged from the automatic drain valve. The cooled air flows through the air heat exchanger to exchange heat with the high-temperature and humid hot air to ensure that the outlet air pipeline does not condense.
● Comparison between adsorption and refrigeration dryers
Adsorption dryer: Suitable for application scenarios that require extremely high dryness, such as precision manufacturing and medical equipment. Its advantages are good drying effect, and its disadvantages are complex structure and high maintenance cost.
Refrigeration dryer: Suitable for general industrial applications, low cost and simple maintenance. Its disadvantages are low efficiency in low temperature environments and may produce more condensed water.
