What is the dew point?

Knowing your own compressed air system and how it works is fundamental to obtaining air as much uncontaminated as possible. If you want to get your compressed air system more and more energetically efficient, you must know the required quality level: this means you have to be sure about the level of dust or remaining oils in the surrounding air.

The dew point is the temperature that allows the water vapour within the air to condense at a specific pressure. Generally, the dew point is also considered as the temperature at the supply pressure: in this case, it’s called the Pressure Dew Point (PDP).

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Checking the dew point is a habit you should learn if your aim is to avoid moisture in your system. The condense, hence, can damage your compressed air supplying system and the internal components of your production machines.

Air quality is defined by the standard ISO 8573 – 1, which specifies the quality level for air. To avoid any issue for the final user of your products, powering your production machines using air without any oil contamination is beneficial. Sometimes oil contamination depends on lubricated compressors, which can be pistons or screw compressors.

In order to provide air as less contaminated by oil as possible, compressors can be integrated with water–oil separators as well as with specific separator filters. In some cases, even these efficient filters are not enough. Sometimes contaminated particles remain in compressed air as vapour or aerosol, thus a good solution can be oil-free compressors.