well maybe kind of steam related

jacobsond

The discoveries never end. During a remodel of one of the auto shops on campus we have noticed something odd. There are F&T traps on the compressed air lines. 1 inch lines. Not sure on the pressure. My guess 100 or more. The traps have 2 inputs and 2 outputs. They have run the compressed air through the 2 inputs and put a drain on the output. Anyone have an explanation? There are also filters on the line. I think the traps serve no purpose.

JUGHNE

Pictures?

Grallert

My first thought would be to remove water from a particularly wet line or long run? Where driers added later?

jacobsond

I will try to get some pictures. They are up in the ceiling so kind of hard to see. There have always been air dryers as far as I know. Someone has added some more filters at some point. Of course everything is 15ft in up so checking everything is difficult. Right now the building is using a large Almig compressor then 2 large filters then an air dryer. This shop is around 50 ft or so from the compressor. Just wondering if I can tell the powers that be that there is nothing wrong with the setup. It would not be hard to remove them,but why create more work for myself.

JUGHNE

In our old power plant there was a device mounted on the wall near the tanks. It looked like a steam trap.
Possibly the compressor was located there originally also.
I wonder if this one was a pressure unloader on the compressor output, so it could restart without pressure on the outlet.

Pumpguy

I agree with @Grallert. I have seen float traps fitted to the bottom of compressed air storage tanks for the reason he describes.
Only added comment I can make is there is no purpose for a thermostatic element, so these traps would, or should be, float only traps.

EBEBRATT-Ed

When you compress air it gets hot (heat of compression) when it cools it absorbs any moisture so compressed air can be wet.

They are probably not F & Ts just f's----float traps. Nothing wrong with that as long as they are rated for the pressure

jacobsond

Thanks for the info. Good to hear. I'm still a newbie trying to figure out all this old stuff on campus. I will maybe get up to them and ID what they actually are, but will recommend we leave them in place as long as they are working.
Now to the slightly hissing expansion joint 2in line in a wet small crawl. Probably wait till summer tho. Still trying to decide on the larger leak on an expansion 8 inch line 80lbs pressure in a much nicer tunnel. Would have to shut down 1/2 campus.The boiler operator says the boiler would shut down without that load under these daytime temps. Barley running 10% now. Scheduled to shut the boiler down at the end of the month. We will have to decide if we can wait that long.

dopey27177

When you compress air moisture in the form of condensate is produced. In older installations buckett or float traps were used to drain out the water.

Today driers or TD traps are used near the compressors and if there are long runs of pipe to a point of use a drier or TD trap can be installed.

All depends on the quality of air needed at the point of use.

Jake

jacobsond

We have refrigerated air dryers at every compressor and compressed air filters. Plus we have purge valves on the compressor tanks. There are also filters at point of use in most cases. This is an old install more than likely before we put in the better dryers and filters. No one bothered to remove the old floats in this area. Likely because they are in the ceiling so getting to them is tougher. Last years remodel of a auto body shop classroom they thought they were steam traps in the air line so they removed them when they ran new line. This remodel of a powersports shop classroom does not involve replacing air lines. Unless someone wants to remove the float traps. Air is used for pneumatic tools. Our pneumatic controls run on a separate system.