TN-Steve
Contributor
Hey Gang,
The shop I manage is going to be setting up a new workshop / fill station and I'd like some guidence on the best way to set up and configure our air bank.
I'm going to have 12 4500psi tanks available to work with. I believe that they are "T" tanks, they are 52 inches appx from ground to top of neck. My goals are to maximize the number of tanks (normally AL 80's) that we can fill before firing up the compressor, while minimizing the number of line runs to the fill station panel. The tanks are not going to be in easy access from the panel, so manually cascading them from the tank valves isn't an option.
The owners want to go with what I'm referring to a 4x3 configuration, that is 4 "virtual" tanks as far as the control panel is concerned, with each virtual tank being 3 tanks "T" connected together.
My thought is that 4 as far as the number of virtual tanks is good, won't require much additional hardware, and 4 airline runs to the panel isn't going to be a huge factor in cost. (we are doing all the labor inhouse).
I think that a setup of 4-3-3-2 in terms of the number in each array is a better choice, since we usually kill the front of the bank early in terms of useable pressure, and this would sort of 'front load' it. The cascade would run off the 4 first, and the two would only be used for final top-off when needed. (For the record, we currently have 8 tanks in line, and manually work tank valves to cascade)
One other person who's judgement I do trust recommended a bank of 3 virtual tanks, with 4 tanks making up each virtual tank (3x4 config). He says that what we need is VOLUME, to design it to be "Deep" rather than "Wide".
Any help would be appreciated. Any guidance to best practices or general guidelines on designing or setting up this type of system would also be well appreciated.
Make each dive better than the last one.
Steve
The shop I manage is going to be setting up a new workshop / fill station and I'd like some guidence on the best way to set up and configure our air bank.
I'm going to have 12 4500psi tanks available to work with. I believe that they are "T" tanks, they are 52 inches appx from ground to top of neck. My goals are to maximize the number of tanks (normally AL 80's) that we can fill before firing up the compressor, while minimizing the number of line runs to the fill station panel. The tanks are not going to be in easy access from the panel, so manually cascading them from the tank valves isn't an option.
The owners want to go with what I'm referring to a 4x3 configuration, that is 4 "virtual" tanks as far as the control panel is concerned, with each virtual tank being 3 tanks "T" connected together.
My thought is that 4 as far as the number of virtual tanks is good, won't require much additional hardware, and 4 airline runs to the panel isn't going to be a huge factor in cost. (we are doing all the labor inhouse).
I think that a setup of 4-3-3-2 in terms of the number in each array is a better choice, since we usually kill the front of the bank early in terms of useable pressure, and this would sort of 'front load' it. The cascade would run off the 4 first, and the two would only be used for final top-off when needed. (For the record, we currently have 8 tanks in line, and manually work tank valves to cascade)
One other person who's judgement I do trust recommended a bank of 3 virtual tanks, with 4 tanks making up each virtual tank (3x4 config). He says that what we need is VOLUME, to design it to be "Deep" rather than "Wide".
Any help would be appreciated. Any guidance to best practices or general guidelines on designing or setting up this type of system would also be well appreciated.
Make each dive better than the last one.
Steve
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