Westinghouse dries air to -10C°F dew point with Alcoa Activated Alumina
23 miles up on a laboratory floor...
Simulating atmospheric conditions 23 miles up demands air dried to a dew point of —100°F. Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Aircraft Equipment Department, Lima, Ohio, faced that problem in designing a high altitude chamber to test aircraft electrical accessories. They solved it with four Lectrodryers charged with Alcoa® Activated Alumina. Air for the test chamber is first rough dried in a refrigerating unit to a dew point of 38°F. It then passes through two of the four Lectrodryers for the tough drying job of removing all remaining moisture vapor to achieve a —100° dew point. Two driers can be kept constantly on-stream while the remaining two are reactivated. Thus, air dried to —100°F can be delivered to the chamber around the clock nonrecirculating at rates up to 20 lbs per minute (260 cu ft at atmospheric pressure). In tough drying jobs like this, Alcoa Activated Aluminas have proved time and again that they afford the fastest, most efficient dehydration possible. They dry to lower dew points than any other commercial adsorbent. They are of uniform purity, composition and structure. They are nontoxic and inert to most gases and vapors. And their strong particles will not break down through repeated cycles of saturation and reactivation. Whatever your drying problem, you'll find that Alcoa Activated Aluminas are synonymous with fast, efficient dehydration of gases, vapors and liquids. Their relatively low cost and ability to stand up under almost endless reactivations make them economical, too. Get the full story on these oldest, most thoroughly proved commercial adsorbents. Write: Aluminum Company of America, 704-K Alcoa Building, Pittsburgh 19, Pennsylvania. Photographs courtesy of Pittsburgh Lectrodryer Company. In this Westinghouse test chamber (left) Alcoa Activated Alumina makes test conditions accurate by drying air for the chamber to a dew point o f — 100°F.
While two of these Lectrodryers are on-stream, an alternate pair is regenerated. The charges of Alcoa Activated Alumina are reactivated b y passing steam through coils at 150 psig maximum for four hours, then cooling with water (at S5.°F) for two hours.
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OCT. 2 9.
1956
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