When it comes to improving humidification . . . it starts with steam.
Armstrong’s improvements in steam humidification are fundamentally different. They begin not with the humidifier, but with the steam. Unlike units that simply disperse steam, Armstrong’s direct-steam humidifiers work with it, guiding it through the many steps of a carefully engineered process.
That’s because at Armstrong, improving humidification is extremely basic. It starts with steam. And what we’ve learned has made it possible to improve the design of hardware that distributes steam.
There’s no name for what happens to steam in an Armstrong humidifier, so we’ve created one. We call it conditioning. To condition steam, we slow it down, remove its particulate matter, separate condensate from it, dry it and, finally, silence it.
Armstrong’s four-step conditioning process
- Straining. The first step in steam conditioning, straining removes most of the steam’s dirt and scale particles.
- Separating. In the cast iron separating chamber, a cupped baffle reverses the flow, forcing steam back on itself. The outer walls of the chamber form another cup, and the same thing happens again. These two 180˚ turns reduce the velocity and separate the condensate from the vapor. The center baffle, positioned directly over the larger drain connection, knocks down and further guides condensate out the drain.
- Drying. Steam entering the drying chamber is at supply temperature and essentially atmospheric pressure, so there’s no condensation. Any remaining mist is re-evaporated before it leaves the humidifier.
- Silencing. The drying chamber is filled with a stainless steel silencing material that absorbs almost completely the noise of escaping steam as it is generated at the control valve.
