Guardian is a new desiccant type breather and revolutionary by design. It is manufactured from Tritan, a co-polyester from Eastman Chemical Company that provides more impact, temperature and chemical resistance and is also BPA free. Incoming air is directed through the filters and desiccant, but all exhaust air is expelled directly out to atmosphere, thus elongating the life of the desiccant and breather. On some systems this single design change can yield as much as 60-70% longer breather life, as all exiting air does not travel back through the breather.
The top check valves are on the inlet and the bottom check valves are on the outlet. When the breather is in static conditions (no air movement) the check valves prevent ambient air from coming into contact with the desiccant, thus extending breather life. Air Sentry pioneered this innovation many years ago, Guardian just perfects it.
When the desiccant changes from gold to dark green, that is the indicator that the desiccant cannot adsorb any additional moisture, it needs to be replaced. Instead of throwing away the entire breather, Guardian has a replaceable center cartridge, which reduces replacement costs and environmental waste. The replaceable cartridge can be desiccant, molecular sieve, activated aluminum or activated carbon, depending on what the application calls for.
Because of the solid bed of silica design and proprietary design features, Guardian also has an optional Stack Ring, which allows multiple cartridges to be stacked atop each other for longer breather life and higher moisture removal capabilities. It also means less servicing and maintenance costs. Stacking vertically puts more breathers in series with one another, they can also be placed on a horizontal manifold that allows for more breathers in parallel and doesn’t reduce air flow.
For applications that have splashing or misting, it’s essential to keep those oils from coming into contact with the desiccant. If the desiccant becomes coated or saturated with oil, it will no longer adsorb moisture. To prevent the misting or splashing from reaching the desiccant in most all desiccant type breathers, you must use a stand pipe to extend the breather away from the reservoir or remote mount the breather. Guardian can be ordered with an Isolation check valve, which eliminates the need for complex mounting. The Isolation Check Valve is a specially designed silicone check valve mounted on the bottom of the cartridge. This prevents fumes, vapors and misting from backing up into the breather.
The color coded compound indicator that is incorporated directly into the base of the Guardian breather. It’s the first desiccant type breather with an indicator that works on both intake and exhaust conditions. Most other indicators only work on vacuum (incoming air to a reservoir) and ignore all exhaust pressures. That could be potentially dangerous, as most all hydraulic systems with cylinders will have higher exhaust air flow than incoming air, because of the area difference between the blind end and rod end of the hydraulic cylinder. A single Guardian breather will provide 25 cfm of inlet air to the reservoir and over 150 cfm of exhaust air flow, as air is directed out to atmosphere not back through the breather.
Rather than a one-size-fits-all, Guardian has a modular platform that allows industry to configure the necessary breather for nearly any application and life expectancy. This makes better use of inventory dollars and ensures that every maintenance dollar is used wisely. This new desiccant breather lasts longer and protects hydraulic reservoirs better.
About Us
Headquartered in Rockwall, Texas, Air Sentry is a global leader in developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art contamination control products. Our breathers are considered the gold standard in contamination control and are used worldwide in major industrial, mining, military, power generation and fluid storage applications.
Air Sentry Breathers were introduced in 1997 to satisfy an obvious and growing requirement in industry-to increase fluid cleanliness, thus decreasing skyrocketing maintenance costs and equipment failure. Air Sentry was a finalist in Plant Engineering’s Product of the Year in 1999 and 2003 for innovative developments in breather technology.
