Air dryer

[esracerx46]

I'm new to the whole cnc plasma thing and am unsure if my air is as clean and as dry as it should be. I getting a little bit of black swirl marks on my electrode. Is a little bit normal? I have an atlas copco compressor that has a 50 cfm capacity. It goes to a prefilter which goes into a macair dryer, then into a desicant dryer. I just changed the desicant yesterday for the first time since I put the refrigerated dryer on, and it appears that the desicant is changing colors, going from blue to a lighter color. Indicating moisture. To me that means the macair dryer isnt working properly. The macair dryer has a 10 cfm max, and the plasma needs 6.7 or greater so I dont think its an issue of the dryer not being able to keep up. The one thing I am noticing is that the dryer wont get a dewpoint between 35-39 like macair says it will. The lowest it will get is 42. I dont really know how or if I can adjust the dewpoint on it or not. The instructions I got on it seem to be for macair's bigger machines...since in the directions its talking about something digital and nothing on this seems to be digital. Thanks in advance for any help you may offer

[PlasmaSpider Store]

I can try to help, please advise the following.

• How far from your compressor is the Macair dryer located?
• Do you know the temp. of the air entering the dryer?
• What is the serial number on the unit?
• Was it purchased from PlasmaSpider?

You can adjust the automatic expansion valve to the left. Left will lower the dewpoint. Just make small adjustments at a time.

I will loook for your reply.

[esracerx46]

I do not know the inlet temperature of the air. We have a large Atlas Copco compressor that powers our whole shop. We have it piped so it fills our old compressor tank as well which is approximately 60 feet away. Our air dryer gets the air from the secondary tank so I would just assume that inlet temperature is ok. I did purchase it from plasma spider. I figured out how to correctly set the dew point temperature. With the dewpoint temperature at the correct setting (35 degrees), would the desicant still get used up? Or does the Macair dryer take out any and all moisture particles? Thanks.

[PlasmaSpider Store]

Sounds like your inlet temp should be fine. The HX dryer will lower the dewpoint to 38 f. The dessicant dryer will lower the dewpoint to -40 F. So yes the desiccant dryer will remove more moisture after the HX dryer, absolutely. However the desiccant dryer will not have to work as hard because of the HX dryer and you will not have to change the desiccant as much compared to of they did not have the HX dryer. Hope this helps.

[Largemouthlou]

Having the same problem with mine, how did you get it to adjust??

[esracerx46]

Take the cover off. If you're looking at the front of the machine, where the dewpoint dial is. Its all the way on the back, about half way up, on the right hand side if youre looking at the front of the machine. Mine had a white/clear plastic cap that was covering the dial. Just go a little bit at a time and give it a few minutes before making more adjustments.

[Largemouthlou]

Thanks.. will ck it out today..