Owners, Dwight Q. Darlage and R. H. "Bob" Miller
Owners, Dwight Q. Darlage and R. H. "Bob" Miller
ERROR MSGRandy "Smitty" Smith and Jeff Pearson fill R-406Acylinders. (the early days)
It all starts with a good vacuumbeing pulled on the cylinders
Left, a "cold trap" is filled withliquid nitrogen (-320 F). The cold traps are in the vacuum linesjust before the vacuum pumps. They freeze out the water (from thehumidity) from the air being removed from the refrigerantcylinders. Freezing out the water with a cold trap helps thevacuum pumps maintain better vacuums longer by avoiding gettingthe water in the their oil.
ERROR MSG30 inches of vacuum (perfect - not obtainable) is"zero" microns. 29 inches of vacuum, the depth ofvacuum that cars are often serviced to equals 25,400 microns; 28inches is 50,800, etc.. It takes a vacuum BETTERTHANhotels royal Thessaloniki 1000-1500 microns to remove moisturefrom A/C systems and the insides of refrigerant cylinders. As youcan see, 29 inches of vacuum = 25,400 microns, will not get thewater out. We have reports of the other major refrigerantmanufactures of only using vacuums of 4000-5000 microns whenfilling cylinders. We USE 100-200 microns, toget the moisture out of the cylinders before filling.
Jon MacIntire uses a torque drill to close thecylinder valves to the correct "first time" closingtorque (35-40 ft/lbs). This correctly seats the valve seat, andactivates the "check valve", so the cylinders cannot berefilled later with (air tanks or recovery cylinders)."Skids" of refrigerant (40 cylinders each) are wrappedin plastic (like Saran Wrap) and await loading onto semitrailers.
A semi trailor pulls in, and Bob Tignor loadsthe skids of refrigerant into the trailer with a forklift.
The truck driver, Mark Sims, attaches theUN1956 (nonflammable compressed gas) placards to the load, andoff he goes.
Bill Hardaway (pictured) and George H.Goble (GHG R-406A inventor), both have done extensive workwith the refrigerant since 1990.