Quantity is important.. but in compressed air, quality is just as important!
Yes, the quality of our compressed air. Not all compressed air is created equal, there’s such a thing as compressed air quality.
Let me correct myself….
All compressed air IS created equal…. it’s dirty, dusty, oily and full with water.
And we don’t want that!
What we need is at least a little level of cleanliness of our compressed air.
For many applications, we do actually need a bit of quality.
But what makes compressed air ‘high quality’ or ‘low quality’?
We are mainly interested in three types of contaminations:
- Dust particles
- Water
- Oil
So what level of quality do you need?
It depends entirely on your application. What do you use compressed air for?
The manual of your equipment should tell you the compressed air requirements for the machine.
It should say the pressure that you need, the amount of air that is used (consumption) and it should also tell you the required quality level.
Sometimes you will find out the required quality yourself, through experience. If you find water drops on your products or oil in your paint job (whatever you use compressed air for, think of something really bad here 😉 … then it’s time to up your air quality.
In the next lesson, we’ll discuss each type of contamination in more detail… but first, watch the video: