The cleaning system on a pulse-type dust collector relies on compressed air. Compressed air often contains small amounts of moisture. When cold weather settles in, the combination of cold metal and moisture creates a problem for your pulse clean solenoids.
Solenoid valves consist of a metal piston that moves up and down in a metal sheath. In cold weather, the moisture from the compressed air is enough to freeze the piston in the open position. Because of this, the diaphragm valve remains open. The result is that compressed air is continually dumped into the dust collector, with very little cleaning effect. This waste of compressed air can be very costly, in addition to adversely affecting the way your dust collector performs. Some customers have suffered a short supply of compressed air in their plant, affecting the way other equipment that required compressed air performs.
At ACT Dust Collectors, we suggest the use of a solenoid heater kit to help combat the freezing of your solenoid valves of outdoor installations. This kit will provide you with a thermostat and heater element to be installed in your solenoid enclosure. The thermostat will turn on the heater elements before the temperatures drop below freezing, thus preventing the solenoid valves from freezing open. If your climate is at risk of freezing temperatures, or you are considering a new dust collector that will be installed in a cold weather environment, please contact us for more information on how this simple solution can save trouble in the future.
Contact the sales team at ACT to discuss your dust collector needs today!