Friday, Aug 22, 2014 at 23:49
If you are concerned about the stanless scourer breaking up and getting into the works I would be far more concerned about the foam.
The foam pictured above is a flter foam that has been arround for quite some time, one brand name for it is "Mirocel".....it has been used for various purposes from the old ram flow filters, airconditioning filters to speaker grills....I useed a few square meters of it my self
Yes it is oil and solvent tolerant to some extent, but let me assure you that it perishes, breaks down and falls appart.
Those stanless scourers are pretty tightly woven and more or less continuous strands....back 30 years or so that is all many lawn mowers and air compressors had for air filters.....oiled stanless wool.
The likelyhood of strands comming loose is pretty small.
now back to youir catch can.
remember one thing,
the primary way that catch cans and other condensation chambers work is to slow and cool the air flow.....if the oil remains vapour, it will go straight thru any type of filter you put in there.
The same applies to compressed air...if air remains hot and the liquid remains vapour it will go straight thru any filter or trap you put it thru.
SO, two things are important, surface area to cool the chamber and cross-sectional area.
If the air is cooled and slowed sufficiently the oil will drop out of airflow with no help required from a filter material.
There are a number of things you can do to improve efficiency like
mounting the chamber somewhere cool
making sure the inlet and outlet are seperated as much as possible
introducing a swirling action so the incomming air contacts the sides of the container thus promoting condensation.
But the major efficiency factors are crossectional area and surface area.
cheers
AnswerID:
538057