High-level compressed-air preparation at EKTAM
Founded in 1977, EKTAM MAKINE SANAYI VE TIC. A.S. has grown into a leading manufacturer of turnkey filling and packaging lines in the Mediterranean. At the company's main plant, located in Izmir on the Aegean coast, equipment is developed and built for the filling technology of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, fruit juices and mineral waters. This systems technology is characterized by individual solutions capable of flexibly adapting to rapid changes in market conditions and ensuring maximum productivity. Donaldson, a leading manufacturer of filters for sensitive applications in the food and beverage industry, supplies compact cold-regeneration adsorption dryers that ensure high purity of the process air, as point-of-use dryers in the EKTAM filling lines.
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Since September, the new Ultrapac™ Smart compressed-air cleaning system has been in use – a continuation of the successful cooperation at a higher integration-technology level. Thanks to the use of a compact compressed-air preparation system, flexible integration into the plant technology and a reduction of installation and maintenance costs are possible.
Special requirements apply to the components for compressed-air preparation in filling lines. A wide range of the compressor's process solutions must be taken into account. Here, important factors are not only the pressure level and the flow from the central compressor station, but also the climatic conditions, which have a great influence on the moisture content of the compressed air. It (the compressed air) must be available in continuous operation as safe high-purity process air for pneumatic control systems and as energy for a wide range of moving mechanisms. In the modular Ultrapac™ Smart system, the cleaning of compressed air takes place in three stages:
- The integrated pre-filter retains solid and atomized particles as well as liquid aerosols (oil/water)
- The adsorption-drying stage sorbs moisture from the compressed air down to a pressure dew point (PDP) of –70 °C/–94 °F, at 70% load (standard –40 °C/–40 °F)
- At the final stage, the remaining particles as small as 0.01 microns are retained by the integrated final filter
This three-stage preparation system reliably ensures compressed-air quality in accordance with ISO 8573-1:2010, corresponding to quality classes 1-2:1-2:1-2, as well as class 0, defined depending on the application and "better than class 1". This is a decisive condition for EKTAM, since the compressed air must be dry in accordance with the requirements of the specific application.
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Stable pressure dew point
Wolfgang Bongartz, Donaldson's technical director in Haan, states: "Over a long period we checked the compliance of the technical specifications of various dryer designs. Large deviations were found. For the Superplus version of our Ultrapac™ Smart system, we developed the Ultraconomy dew-point control system, by means of which stable compliance with the set dew point is achieved during continuous operation. This is especially important because the dew-point temperature changes with a change in pressure."
The dryer cartridges, filled with a highly active stable adsorbent using a special technology, are designed for long-term regeneration. The version with a built-in dew-point sensor, which takes measurements directly in the compressed-air flow, is especially energy-saving. Switching between the two cartridges occurs only when the adsorbent is completely saturated. The noise level during switching was reduced to 60 dB(A) using the newly developed UltraSilencer muffler.
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High filtration efficiency at a low pressure drop
The built-in energy-saving UltraPleat™ filters provide optimal filtration efficiency at a low pressure drop. When compressed air enters, the UltraPleat™ pre-filter already effectively separates or retains liquid and solid particles before it reaches one of the two adsorbent cartridges. The post-filter, which removes solid particles as small as 0.01 µm, is an effective means of protection that ensures the availability of dry compressed air meeting purity requirements. For the separation of oil aerosols, an efficiency of ≥ 99.9% is achieved in accordance with ISO 12500-1:2007. Data on filter performance in accordance with ISO 12500-1 and ISO 12500-3:2009 were also confirmed by an independent institute for energy and environmental research. Through the successful development of filtration technologies to improve energy efficiency and save resources, it is emphasized that such high filtration efficiency was achieved while reducing the pressure drop by a further 50%.
Conclusion
Centralized production of high-quality compressed air for the entire pneumatic system is usually difficult to achieve, because in a widely branched pneumatic system it is hard to control aerosol-type contamination. Therefore, to ensure the safety of the process and the product, especially in food and beverage production, it is necessary to use a cleaning stage directly at the point of consumption, as is practiced in the exemplary EKTAM installations, and not only for economic reasons.
