GB1520520A - Apparatus for cleaning and cooling compressed air - Google Patents

Abstract

1520520 Gas cleaner and cooler STRATOFLEX INC 21 Oct 1975 43236/75 Heading B2P An apparatus for cleaning hot compressed air comprises a housing 21, Fig. 1, defining an air-swirl chamber 32, a contaminant drain opening 49, 50 formed in the housing at a lower side of the swirl chamber, an inlet 42 for directing the air to be cleaned tangentially into the swirl chamber, a tubular member 24 coaxially mounted within the housing to provide an exit passage for relatively clean air leaving the swirl chamber and extending downwardly from a higher side of the swirl chamber past the air inlet 42 to a location adjacent to the drain opening 49, 50 and valve means 51, 52 connected to the drain opening for normally closing the latter and causing contaminants and moisture to collect therein. The compressed air to be cleaned is supplied from a compressor to a T-fitting 38 equipped with a relief valve 41 and associated with inlet 42. The drain opening 49, 50 is formed in a closure member 23 and consists of an off-centre vertical passageway 49 and a lateral threaded hole 50 into which is screwed a nipple 51 of an automatic drain valve 52. The valve 52 may be of the normally closed type, Fig. 16 (not shown) when the compressor is used for operating air-brakes on automotive equipment, Fig. 18 (not shown), and is continuously driven by the engine thereof. Alternatively, the valve may be of the normally open type, Fig. 17 (not shown), when the compressor is installed in service stations &c and is intermittently started and shut down depending on the pressure of its associated compressed air reservoir. The tubular member 24 which is in the form of a funnel is mounted in the housing 21 between the swirl chamber and a cooling chamber 33 which is surrounded by cooling fins 95 and in which the relatively cleaned compressed air travels through a relatively thin annular passageway provided between the wall of the housing 21 and a hollow air guide member 62 which has a cylindrical side wall and an upper closure 63 both made of plastics or hard-pressed or impregnated fibre material and which has its lower open end supported on a perforated disc 67 mounted on the member 24. The cooling chamber 33 is surmounted by a filter 75 confined between perforated metallic discs 76 and 77 and seated by a spring 80 against a retainer ring 78 in a housing 74 integrally formed with a closure 22 of the housing 21. The lower end of the housing 74 is supported by a spring 90 on top of the closure 63 of the air guide member 62. The closure 22 has a clean air exit passage 82 which communicates via a check valve 83 with compressed air reservoirs. An air-permeable dessicator cartridge (not shown) may be mounted between the filter 75 and the closure 22 to remove any traces of moisture left in the compressed air. In modifications, the swirl chamber may be also surrounded by cooling fins or the whole of the chamber or its lowermost portion containing the closure member 23 may be encased in a thermally insulated jacket.