Hi all,
What's your experience with compressed air/nitrogen systems? We have
been having such trouble lately with our house compressed air that
we're going to be getting our own air compressor and dryer. (Piping
in dry N2 is not an option for various reasons.) I want to approach
this purchase as an informed shopper so we don't replace one bad
system with another.
If you have your own air dryer or stand-alone compressor/dryer/N2
generator system, I'd like to know what it is and how you like it.
(If you don't have such a system, but have relevant thoughts on the
subject of dry compressed air, please share them.) Specifically, I'd
like to know about:
A) Compressor reliability. What happens if your compressor fails? Is
it a "dual" unit? Do you have a separate backup compressor?
B) Dryer reliability. Do you have a backup dryer, and if so, how does
it get switched on?
C) Air quality monitoring. Do you have a dew point meter? How dry is
your air? Do you monitor pressure?
D) Siting & vibration. How far away is your compressor from the
spectrometers? Do you have any special mounts to isolate the
compressor's vibration from the floor? What measures have been taken
to keep the compressor's acoustic noise down?
E) Brand recommendations. Please tell me what brands of equipment
you're using in your discussion, and whether you'd recommend them to
me or dissuade me from them. We're looking at equipment from Quincy,
Atlas/Copco and Ingersoll-Rand.
Thanks for your help.
- Josh
Josh Kurutz, Ph.D.
Technical Director, Biomolecular NMR Facility
University of Chicago
Gordon Center for Integrative Science, room W123C
929 E. 57th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
Office: (773) 834-9805
Spectrometer Room: (773) 702-4052
Cell: (773) 315-5732
Fax: (208) 978-2599
nmr.bsd.uchicago.edu
homepage.mac.com/jkurutz
Received on Tue Sep 26 2006 - 17:38:15 MST