Nitrogen Supply / Ventilation / etc.? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: forrestc
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 22, 2020, 11:44:02 am
content: I'm back to looking at buying a selective solder machine. Nitrogen inerting is pretty much required with these.The one I'm most interested in (Pillarhouse Pilot) indicates that it consumes 30LPM of nitrogen when in use. Some others are somewhat less, but most are in the 20-30LPM requirements. Idling requirements seem to be lower but are harder to come by.They also sell an optional nitrogen generator that consumes 1000LPM of air peak, 400LPM average. This means we'd need a much bigger air compressor. Plus, this might push us over the power availability in the manufacturing facility, since between the air compressor and the selective soldering we'd be adding around 60A of load - this means a service upgrade, etc.I'm wondering if anyone who has dealt with setting up a nitrogen supply in their shop could let me know what they've run into? I'm in an area where getting liquid delivered is going to be a challenge, especially during winter months, so I think I'm going to end up having to probably generate this myself, but I'm not sure if there's a more energy or cost-efficient way to do this. To be clear: I'm also not particularly opposed to the Liquid or Cylinder route if it turns out to be not nearly the bother I think it might be.Also, I'm curious about the ventilation requirements and anything else I'm probably not thinking about because I've never done this before.

author: Pseudobyte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2020, 03:34:38 pm
content: We have a couple of older ACE selective soldering machines. We order 3 180L liquid nitrogen dewars from Air Gas and resupply as needed, and have a handful of steel cylinders as backup. When we are very busy the nitrogen last 2-3 weeks for 8hrs/day 5days/week operation. The machines need ~90CFM of ventilation, and expend 22L/min of N2. I don't know if that helps you much because you said that you would be unable to do liquid delivery.

author: forrestc
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2020, 05:28:18 am
content: Quote from: Pseudobyte on January 22, 2020, 03:34:38 pmThe challenge in our area is that many suppliers don't want to do deliveries over the winter because of road conditions. So during warmer months it isn't a problem, but winter can depend on the road conditions which sometimes means impassable for larger trucks for a couple months.That said, I think I am going to look at liquid again since the generation seems overly expensive once I start adding everything I have to have to make this work.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2020, 06:04:40 am
content: It isn't impossible to set up a large storage tank to carry you through the winter months. Not cheap but might solve your problem. Of course the other solution is to move to a better supplied industrial area.

author: eeviking
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2020, 12:55:07 pm
content: At my old work we ran an Ersa versaflow of a rack of bottles (EU pallet size). A rack would last a couple of weeks at low volume and we always had a spare rack onsite.I guess you could stock a few spare bottle racks doing the winter? But it all depends on your usage.