Did you know we also supply Nitrogen Generators?

Do you buy liquid or bottled Nitrogen?

This can be very expensive and can take up a lot of storage. Nitrogen Generators produce a continuous supply of high purity nitrogen on site, using your existing Compressed Air Equipment. Thus, offering a cost effective and reliable alternative to bulk deliveries.

As you may know, Nitrogen is a dry, inert, colourless, and odourless gas that makes up 78% of the air that we breath.

It can be produced by using air separation by mechanical mean, by taking atmospheric air, pressurizing it in an Air Compressor and then separating it with either a membrane or Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) generator.

Nitrogen Safety

When using Nitrogen, you should deal with it in the same manner as Compressed Air in respect of any Pressure System Legislation and Compressed Air Safety. It should be remembered that Oxygen has been removed and the remaining Nitrogen is unbreathable and cannot support life. All equipment, machines and pipework must be clearly labelled to warn any users that they contain Nitrogen and that it is a potential asphyxiant.

Typical Applications

Nitrogen Generators have a wide variety of applications, including serving as an inert replacement for air where oxidation is undesirable:

Tyre Inflation. Standard garage or service station airlines use Compressed Air to fill the tyres on your vehicle. This compressed air contains water vapour, which can, over time, cause corrosion with the tyre. Air can then escape out of the tyre wall leading to a drop in pressure. Nitrogen can slow the rate of pressure loss and will keep the tyre pressure more constant. This increases the life of your tyre. An increasing number of garages are now offering motorists the choice of a Nitrogen for their tyres.

Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) of Food. This is used to preserve the freshness of packaged or bulk foods such as crisps, nuts, snack foods and packaged salads. The MAP process involves displacing the air inside a package with a protective gas to keep oxygen at a controlled level. Too much oxygen and moisture will often lead to bacterial growth. This results in spoilage, inconsistent flavours, poor quality, and shortened shelf life. Nitrogen is frequently used as a protective gas because of its dry, inert qualities.

Bottling to preserve the freshness of wine. Used in similar way to the MAP by delaying rancidity and other forms of oxidative damage.

Laser Cutting.  Many laser cutting applications rely on non-reactive (inert) gases as the assist gas. Nitrogen would be the typical choice for cutting stainless steels, aluminium, and its alloys. With nitrogen cutting, increasing the nitrogen pressure will result in faster cutting speeds. This speed gain is limited by the cooling effect of high-pressure gas flows. The nitrogen purity is important if a clean-cut edge is required, for example when cutting stainless steel or aluminium metals.

There are many other uses for Nitrogen e.g.,

• Bottling to preserve the freshness of wine,
• On top of liquid explosives as a safety measure (paints and solvents),
• The production of electronic parts such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits (prevents oxygen and moisture)
• Dried and pressurized, as a dielectric gas for high voltage equipment
• Use in military aircraft fuel systems to reduce fire hazard.

If you would like to find out more or have a free quotation for a Nitrogen Generator, please follow this link to send us an email: sales@air4ultd.co.uk