Water in air assist

[Helen Cast]

Can someone suggest an option for the mega water building up in this system. The pump is a medical/oiless unit, the filter/gauge unit is typical and the poly line between them is only six feet long.
Everything is working fine except when the ambient temp is above 75 degrees and the humidity is excessive. The filter bowl is collecting so much water that after thirty minutes of lasering I must unscrew and dump it. If not, I think the water would reach the optics and possibly damage them.
I know an air conditioner and/or a dehumidifier would help but I may have the circuits near my equipment maxed out already and I'm concerned about a drop in voltage...
Are there any sizable in line units that can be inserted that has worked for anyone? Would adding this additional water unit cause the compressor to work harder thereby creating more heat and additional condensation? BTW, I do not have the auto solenoid that opens/closes air assist on demand. It is either ON or OFF.
Any ideas before we bubble over? Minnesota summer!
Thank you.

[Mark Winlund]

You are correct in that water will cause big problems if it gets into the optics. With our system, we have an oiless compressor, but after that, we installed a refrigerated air dryer. It is a small unit, about 1 foot cube, and runs on 110 volts. The air is absolutely dry coming out of this system. We bought our dryer from Grainger. The type that is on the bottom of a regulator does not do much. It relies on spinning the incoming air so that it coalesces on the walls of the housing, where it collects in the bottom. Depending on humidity, it will need to be drained often. It also does nothing about water vapor, which passes right through.

Get a refrigerated dryer. You will save money in the long term.

Mark

[Guy Hilliard]

Helen;

It's hard to tell from the photograph but a lot of water seperators have a Schrader valve in the bottom that allows them to be drained without stopping the process. If you push the small tip comming out of the bottom of glass it will drain the glass without stopping to unscrew it.

[James Rambo]

Try this: Before the water separator roll the air hose into a couple of loops and put a small fan blowing on the hose loops. This will cool the air just enough to let the water separate in the bowl of the air/water separator. If it works well enough you can open the schreader valve to let the water drain all the time you are working. Use a bucket under the separator to catch the water if needed. I am talking about an additional separator outside of the laser cabinet.

[Kim Vellore]

you could use a bigger water filter and from the pic I see you dont need to unscrew the cap to remove the water, just push the valve at the bottom it will drain out of there, you can do it under pressure while running the machine too.
Kim

[Richard Rumancik]

Helen

I don't know the price on a refrigerated dryer but no doubt it will work well. But since you say your circuits are full maybe a passive system would work.

You won't have success in air conditioning or dehumidifying the room from which the compressor draws the air anyway. What you want to do is dry the air after it leaves the compressor.

You might talk to some auto-body painters in your area and ask what they use to dry the air for their paint guns. For example

www.ecompressedair.com/pointofuse/desiccantairdryer.shtml (http://www.ecompressedair.com/pointofuse/desiccantairdryer.shtml)

This is a $300 solution that requires occasional purchase of new cartridges but I don't know how often they need changing. The painting experts could tell you what they do. There may be less expensive units out there.

I have a cheap solution that I use. It is a $75 desiccator for air lines which is basically 2" diameter steel pipe with fittings on each end. (Maybe Harbour Freight sells something similar). It is then filled with desiccant pellets. The air enters the bottom, passes through the pellets of desiccant, and and exists from the top. Then it goes to the filter (which you must have). There is a drain at the bottom for water as it is collected and drips down.

I also use the "coiled hose" trick. I bought a 25' coiled air hose and wrapped it around the 2" tube. (This makes for a neat looking assembly.) Air enters at the top, and any water that condenses in the tube drips down the tube and joins the waste water at the bottom. Cooling the air is key (whether refrig or fan or passive) to get its temperature down and remove some of the water.

Some desiccants can be re-used by heating them. A cartridge is nice in that you don't have to deal with loose desiccant. I made mine into a cartridge system by putting the pellets into a PVC tube perforated with holes. You might be able to use a fabric bag of some sort as well.

If you have the budget available I suggest you buy something complete off-the-shelf. You can still add some coiled tube in front but its to be set up so it can be drained.

You can search on terms like "painting", "air dryer", and "desiccant" for more info.