Best Air Filter for my Power Supply?

rpoet · Sep 10, 2018

alive15 said:
Right, I will eventually move into its own electrical cabinet with an AC unit. Right now, they sit underneath the conveyor itself.

Also, we replace that blue filter about once a week.

My plan includes drilling a small hole in the electrical cabinet and supplying 3 psi of clean air. The issue involves finding a device that cleans the air before sucking it into the panel, otherwise the cabinet will eventually get dirty as well, and then cause the same problem inside the power supply.

I'll look through the various vendors given, I appreciate all the info thus far. I will look at GaryS's solution, because I do not want the dirty outside air to get into the panel.

If you install an AC unit, there's no need for pressurization. Truly clean instrumentation air is almost impossible to come by, save maybe for bottled nitrogen. Your cabinet WILL get to be a wet, oily mess if you use "shop" air no matter how well you filter it. Someone will forget to change the filter. Use a NEMA4 cabinet; the gasketed door will keep the nasties out..

jdbrandt · Sep 10, 2018

alive15 said:
Good afternoon to all,

I have a UV Power supply which I send out for repair almost every year due to oil and crud getting into the power supply. The oil gets in and turns into this thick black smudge and gets all over the boards inside. The air is pretty dirty around the power supply, you can see how dirty the filter gets in only a few days (see picture).

I plan to place my power supplies inside a panel, but I will need an AC unit to keep everything cool. This dirty air will eventually find a way in.

I'm looking for a better way to filter the air than these blue covers. Does anyone recommend any product to accomplish this? I thought about putting those small bags you see inside vitamin pills that absorb moisture and a bunch of those inside my panel, but no idea if this would work or if this is even allowed. I need the ability to place whatever air filter I get on either side of my AC unit to prevent dirty air from entering into the power supply.

Thanks,

In a previous life, we used loose Potassium-Permanganate nodules in air filtration systems. Any nasty stuff would get absorbed by the nodules, and, all you had to do is change them out when they went from purple to brown.

https://www.bosch-climate.us/files/Bosch-Filters-BTC76H39006-10-23-web_US_2.pdf

PapaSmiff · Sep 10, 2018

My guess is that a coalescing filter would be best. They are readily available from SMC, Norgren, or any of the other big companies that make pneumatic devices and they trap particles in the micron range. Set it up with a regular compressed air filter feeding it and it will have a long lifetime.

With a standard air filter feeding it and if you have a lot of contamination in your shop air, you might need to replace the coalescing element every six months but I've never needed that - a year was usually OK. The standard air filter element may need changed more often though.

PapaSmiff · Sep 10, 2018

I've got to admit, though, that was interesting to learn about those Potassium-Permanganate nodules.

5618 · Sep 10, 2018

We use four TECA (https://www.thermoelectric.com/) units here. The original models had a fan inside and outside. The outside fan would gum up quickly in the oily, dusty environment. We changed to some liquid cooled units that use water to remove heat instead of the outside fan. I don’t know the exact flow but it takes a few minutes for a gallon. We have a process to reuse the cooling water so there’s no waste there. Continuous water dumping would be counter to financial and environmental goals. A closed loop system with a remote cooler could work.

The water cooled TECA units have worked great. It sounds like the fan cooled units might gum up in your environment.

GaryS · Sep 10, 2018

I would stay w=away from pressurized panel
the vortec cooler work ok but they need a clean air supply and the plant air is far from clean. All plane air compressors pump oil into the lines it would soon get into the panel and cover everything with oil and dirt. The cleanup would be a real challenge.
They also consume a lot of plant air and all you need is somebody to leave the panel open a little.

5618 · Sep 11, 2018

We have used some Vortec coolers in the past. When we had oil bath screw compressors, they did oil the cabinet internals even with coalescing filters. They were fine after we went to dry screw compressors. We have eliminated these because of the high energy cost of compressed air. The dry screws aren't as efficient as oiled but clean air is a huge benefit for us as well as less maintenance throughout the plant.

For less than the yearly repair costs maybe you duct in fresh air with a blower from a clean area.

Best Air Filter for my Power Supply?

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