Effects of Uncontrolled Humidity
Many applications in the chemical processing industry generate high-temperature airstreams that affect humidity levels. Different chemical processes can be impacted by moisture in the air. Humid air can cause the product to stick and clump together, resulting in problems with overall production efficiency.
Advantages with Munters
Controlling the production environment with Munters air treatment solutions ensures that problems are avoided, and the production climate is kept stable and fully controlled year-round. A high product quality is maintained while production output can be increased and the number of un¬planned production stops reduced, saving valuable time and money.
Chemical Processing Applications That Require Dehumidification
Sulfuric Acid Plants
Sulfuric acid manufacturing processes require the heating of air streams to significantly high temperatures, with large economic and environmental costs. The use of high temperature heat exchangers in these applications can lower those costs, but many customers are concerned about the quality and reliability of heat exchangers in their critical processes.
Munters has extensive experience providing custom-designed high temperature heat exchangers in sulfuric acid plants for the CIP and HIP processes. Customers feel secure knowing our products lower their costs without introducing problems into their processes.
Glass Production
The thin, transparent, plastic film which serves as the adhesive between layers of safety glass is substantially hygroscopic. Hygroscopic products are sensitive to high relative humidity rather than absolute humidity, and relative humidity can be high at any time of the year. If exposed to moisture, the film will boil off in processing, creating steam bubbles that get trapped in laminated glass, causing quality issues and costly product loss. To solve the humidity issue, conditions need to be held at 70°F/21°C at 20-22% relative humidity.
Munters’ desiccant dehumidifiers create an optimal low humidity environment for manufacturing, storage and use of this laminating adhesive. A Munters industrial dehumidification system can reliably maintain conditions as rigorous as -70°F/-57°C dew point and is available in multiple configurations with capacities up to 100,000 SCFM.
Plastics
In most plastic injection molding operations, the mold coolant temperature must be very cold to obtain optimum results. This rapid cooling of the mold means that water vapor in the surrounding air will condense on the mold surfaces. Condensed water creates problems for the mold because it will begin to corrode. It also causes quality issues for the product, leaving watermarks and cracks.
Munters’ dehumidification systems eliminate condensation by drying the air that surrounds the mold. An energy efficient, dry desiccant dehumidifier absorbs and removes the moisture from the air. Since the air is dry, moisture cannot condense on the cooled mold surface.
Benefits of using a Munters dehumidification system in plastic molding operations:
- Faster cycle times – some customers report a 40% production increase from the same machines, simply by lowering the coolant temperature.
- Improved part properties – rapid cooling without condensation can improve the clarity and crystalline structure of PET parts.
- Reduced mold maintenance – since the mold is no longer bathed in water on each shot, surface corrosion is greatly reduced.
- No rust on guide pins – the dry air also protects guide pins so that customers no longer need to slow production or idle expensive machines due to rust on precision sliding surfaces.
- Better parts surfaces – dry air ensures that condensation will not corrupt micro-precise part surface detail, or leave water on the surface to interfere with finishing operations.
- Meet production schedules consistently – by continually providing the air at the specification, customers meet production schedules consistently, regardless of the weather or time of year.
