Capabilities

Desiccants

Flow-Dry® packaging equipment is designed in-house by Flow Dry process engineers. Highly reliable and adaptive, Flow-Dry desiccant bag packaging equipment can provide a package with any available desiccant, silica gel or other specified drying material. Although XH-7 and XH-9 from UOP are the most commonly used desiccants for automotive applications, packages can also be provided to meet application specifications using a variety of desiccant manufacturers including:

• UOP
• Zeochem
• Grace
• ATOFINA

Clips

Polypropylene plastic clips are designed to locate and protect desiccant bags inside the accumulator cans. Clips are typically used in applications with center weld cans where the bag may be damaged by the weld heat. The clip is clamped in a specific position around the desiccant bag during the assembly process to protect the bag from the heat of the weld. An additional benefit of the clip is its ability to retain the bag in a fixed location between the J-tubes, thus reducing attrition of the desiccant.

Foil

Foil wrap is designed to protect sections of the desiccant bag from the intense heat created when the accumulator can is welded. Aluminum foil with a polypropylene coating is heat sealed to the desiccant bag during our assembly process.

CAD Design

AutoDesk Inventor Series which includes AutoCad, Mechanical Desktop or 3D solid modeler generation of drawings and solid models for desiccant bags and desiccant cartridges. Flow Dry can export data in many different formats including DXF, DWG, IGES, BMP and PDF. Drawings can be sent via e-mail attachments, fax, or "snail mail" up to D size paper format. Or contact Flow Dry to set up an FTP area to download drawings as needed.

Prototypes

Flow Dry has a prototype lab where it fabricates hundreds of different styles of prototype and sample desiccant products every year. Customers receive quick turnaround time for samples along with design help.

Tracer Wafers™

Tracer dyes are used to detect leaks in automotive a/c systems. The simplest method to install the dye into the system is to have Flow Dry install it into the desiccant bag. This eliminates a second part number and reduces the possibility of missed installation and contamination. For more information, go to www.tracerline.com.

Testing

Flow Dry has the capability to test pressure drop, seam strength, vibration, permeability and loss on ignition (LOI) on all its desiccant products.

Pressure Drop

Pressure drop testing is used to determine the amount of fluid flow restriction a receiver dryer or accumulator design creates. Less restrictive designs have the potential to create a higher performance a/c system. The desiccant package contained inside the receiver dryer or accumulator can create a restriction in the system and therefore increase the pressure drop of the system. Because pressure drop is a critical design requirement, Flow Dry utilizes a pressure drop tests to aid in designing the highest performance desiccant packages on the market.

Vibration

Vibration testing is used to determine if a desiccant package is designed to withstand the punishment it will be subjected to in a vehicle. If the desiccant package is not designed properly it could be damaged or cause damage to other components in the system. Flow Dry has the capability to test desiccant packages as installed in receiver dryers and accumulators to insure long life without premature failure.

Seam Strength

Along with vibration testing, seam strength testing is critical to insure structural integrity of the desiccant package. An automated pull tester checks the strength of package welds. SPC data of the seam strengths is recorded and monitored to insure proper process control.

Permeability

The physical properties of the material used to fabricate desiccant bags are critical to insure proper performance. The permeability of the bag material must be balanced to allow the desiccant exposure to the refrigerant, while at the same time containing any attrition of desiccant particles inside the bag. Because of its low cost and permeability properties, polyester felts have become the standard materials of construction for most a/c desiccant bags. Some desiccant bag fabricators form or stretch the bag material in the process of manufacturing; this distortion can weaken the material and change its permeability properties. Flow Dry fabricates its desiccant bags without stretching or forming the bag material to insure that the proper permeability rating is maintained. Extensive permeability testing is performed to insure all bags have the proper permeability rating.

Loss on Ignition (LOI)

The industry standard test to measure the amount of water that has been adsorbed by the desiccant is the Loss on Ignition test. To perform this test the desiccant must be heated for a specified period of time to bake out the water. The difference in the desiccant weight before and after heating is the amount of water the desiccant contained. LOI testing is performed on all incoming desiccant material; in-process packaging and outgoing product to insure the moisture content is maintained at specified levels.

Gaskets

Flow Dry employs a highly trained in-house staff and the latest design and engineering technology in the gasket business.

The company maintains an extensive inventory of materials to assist customers with the optimum solution for their application requirements, from rubber-edged composite gaskets to kiss-cut, peel and stick foam gaskets.

Flow Dry has all the tools to design and produce nearly any gasket:

• Rapid Prototypes
• Sealing Application Analysis
• Gasket Engineering Services
• In House Tooling
• Short Run Production and Prototyping
• Long Run Production

Click here for more about our gaskets, Select-a-Seal^® and gasket materials.

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