AIR DRYERS

Compressed air is typically used in paint spraying, for powering of pneumatic tools, such as pneumatic wrenches, sanders and grinders, for cleaning off of machinery, such as milling machines and lathes. Compressed air is further used to operate pneumatic actuators, motors, clutches and other industrial equipment. The air borne moisture and humidity in the air stream and also eventually entrapped within pneumatic installations tends to pass through power equipment and corrode it in a due time, while solid particulate contaminants carried by the compressed air stream accelerate wear of friction parts in pneumatic equipment. Any water exiting the power equipment is often quite undesirable, for example it stains woodwork, contaminates spray paints and usually decreases efficiency and lifetime of sanding and polishing consumables.

Therefore, it is desirable to remove moisture and solid contaminants from compressed air before it enters any pneumatic equipment and it is also desirable to limit the compressed air humidity to such a degree, that the air expansion and cooling along with other pressure gradients within and past pneumatic tools and equipment do not cause further condensation and release of liquid water within, or past the tools and an equipment.
Compressed air dryers can be classified as dehumidifiers and moisture separators.

Air dehumidifiers

Refrigerated dehumidifiers typically remove airborne water vapor by cooling the air stream below its dew point by means of refrigeration and removing the resulting condensation. They tend to be relatively complex, failure prone due to freezing, expensive and they need their own power supply. They have to be maintained, often requiring replacement of parts.

Desiccant dehumidifiers of compressed air appear to be a better option than the refrigerated dehumidifiers, but they are still fairly maintenance intensive and require replacement of the contaminated desiccant.
Neither of these are related to SDK Terminator dryers.

Moisture separators

Moisture separators (gas liquid separators) typically remove only water, which is already present in the airlines in its liquid form. Most of these also remove to some degree solid particulate contaminants coming from the scaling of the airlines and other sources.

The SDK Terminator design invented out of the immediate need for an affordable, but most of all dependable compressed air dryer is applicable within some limitations of the necessary flow speed and the required degree of air drying to any gas flow volume.

Terminator depends on pressure gradients, geometry and ratios of its body. Its correct design creates an ultimately stable and very efficient turbulent pattern of the air stream within its cavity. SDK Terminator does not depend on multitude of internal surfaces, orifices, labyrinths, secondary vessels and chambers, partitions and baffles, which are inherent to most of the competition dryers of this kind. The design is simple and straightforward and it allows the air stream to do the job naturally, creating an optimal pattern of the airflow within.

SDK Terminator knows no failure to deliver compressed air stream 100% free of liquid water 100% of the time. It also offers a sensible, cost effective means to protect the above dehumidifying dryers from unnecessary condensed moisture borne in the lines between the compressor and the dehumidifier and the longer the line, the better, extending the maintenance periods for desiccant dehumidifiers and alleviating possible problems with freezing up of the refrigerated dehumidifiers.