Internally Heated Regenerative Air Dryers ahve received a bad reputation from poor designs originally marketed by several companies in the 1970’s. Heater burnout, desiccant scorching and even fires plagued the poor design. Great Lakes Series GIH Air Dryers utilize their unique tank baffle design to eliminate product short comings of past. 100% of the purge flow moves over every extremely low watt density heating element to eliminate burnout. Because of the baffled flow path the heating sheath never comes in contact with inlet air, it only sees clean dry purge air off the online tower. This removes the possibility of inlet oil carryover reaching flashpoint and eliminates the possibility of fires. This modern and proven design is the flagship of the Great Lakes regenerative product line.

The GIH Series is the most economical regenerative dryer system to operate. The system requires only a 3-4% purge rate, half of an Externally Heated dryer.

Sequence of Operation

Compressed air laded with moisture vapor enters the system through the right inlet valve and proceeds to enter the desiccant bed through the stainless steel diffuser screen. The air flows up from the bottom of the tank to the top allowing separated and condensed liquid to remain at the bottom of the vessel not contaminating the rest of the desiccant. The dehydrated compressed air then exits the right vessel through the top stainless steel diffuser screen, and past the outlet check-valve. A percentage of the dry air is

metered, and directed to the left desiccant bed for regeneration. The adsorbent purge air enters the vessel in the primary heater tube flowing down while it reaches regeneration temperature. It then enters the secondary heater tube where the purge flow returns to the top of the desiccant bed and flows down heating the desiccant bed and collecting moisture from the desiccant. The now moisture laden purge air exits the system through the purge valve and muffler. After 2.5 hours the purge heater cycles off allowing the unheated purge air to cool the bed. Several minutes before the cycle nears completion the purge valve closes and allows the regeneration vessel to equalize pressure with the on-line tower. The cycle completes after 4 hours and the inlet valves invert continuing the cycle.