PARTICLE COUNTING IN COMPRESSED AIR

17. June 2019

It is necessary to measure air quality in modern compressed air systems. One part of this is to measure the particle concentration in the supplied air. The common problem that occurs is that most particle counters operate only at the ambient pressure. That is, the pressure needs to be reduced.

Reducing the pressure without a major impact on the counted particles is hard to achieve. Users should always consider what solution is offered by the particle counter supplier.

The ISO8573-4 states that a standard flow control or ball valve should not be used to reduce the pressure prior to the point of measurement because this could cause a lowered measurement value. Furthermore, it states that pressure regulators should never be used in front of the measurement equipment. Pressure regulators and their materials are typically not suited to be used due to particle shedding.

In a word, there should never be a pressure regulator in front of your particle measurement equipment.

S130 / S132