Pneumatics - what do we do with exhaust air?

[eugenebrooks]

Originally Posted by devaaki

Does exhaust air need to be muffled, or can it just be opened to the atmosphere?

I am shocked and dismayed by all of these suggestions to vent
exhaust air to the atmosphere! Don't you guys and gals know
your environmental regulations? You have to recycle this exhaust
air properly as hazardous waste...

Eugene

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by eugenebrooks

I am shocked and dismayed by all of these suggestions to vent
exhaust air to the atmosphere! Don't you guys and gals know
your environmental regulations? You have to recycle this exhaust
air properly as hazardous waste...

Eugene

Agreed! Everybody knows that you get nauseated if you breathe too much of this stuff in too fast.

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

[Jay H 237]

The only thing the sintered mufflers do is quiet the exhaust air some and help keep dirt out of the valve when it's not exhausting. The dirt factor isn't such a big concern in the enviroment where FIRST robots are as it would be where the valves are used out in some industrial applications.

[GVDrummer]

I think you need to have a car muffler on their that makes it hum... lol

[Kaizer007]

If regular air is being inserted through the compressor into the tubing, stored and used to move a piston, then released out into the atmosphere, isn't it just the same air it was when it went in? Why would it be considered hazardous waste?

And I would like to know if team could and would post a diagram of a simple closed air system (or explain in Great detail) to feed compressed air back into a system instead of releasing it and losing air pressure. Our team never really got around to creating a sub pneumatics team. It's always been just Electrical, Programming, and Mechanical.

I would assume a second lower pressure system would be needed to feed into, but I don't know how to feed it back into the higher pressure system, or to keep them unequalized, or the effect a 60 - 40 PSI co-system would have on power to the cylinders we are using.

*I had trouble finding anything helpful on the internet, although I'm a terrible, but persistant searcher.*

[devaaki]

Pretty sure we're not going to be venting the air into the system - we were just wondering if we needed to put any mufflers on the valve.... Guess not

[MikeDubreuil]

Two words: Whistle Tip