ISIOXY the oxygen concentrator for glass beads and flamework

Now that we know that, we can take a cylinder and fill it with the granules. At the top we put a
valve to allow air inside, and at the bottom we put another valve in to let the oxygen and the
other pure gases out (by the way, the other gases prevent a 100% saturation of oxygen).

There is also another valve through which the removed nitrogen is allowed to escape.

And this is how oxygen is concentrated: air is sucked in and passed through the granules. The
bottom valve is closed. The granules hold on to the nitrogen. Underneath the pure gases are let
out.
Then you suck in more air, and at the same time open the third valve. Through this valve, the
nitrogen held by the granules is released.
So, it's a three stage process:
1. Air in
2. Oxygen out
3. Nitrogen out

In conventional oxygen concentrators there are two cylinders with granules. This is so oxygen
can be let out alternately. However, because there are three stages and only two cylinders,
there's always a break in the process.
Therefore these concentrators use a tank.
When you first turn on the concentrator, there's only air inside, but the system is able to take
something out of the air. So, at the beginning, almost only air comes out of the concentrator, until
the tank is full of oxygen. Because of this, you always have to wait a few minutes until your
burner functions properly.

For obvious reasons, this system can be improved upon. And it has been! We've found a
manufacturer who has found a new and better solution: namely to work with three cylinders. This
system doesn't need a tank, because throughout the three stages oxygen can be taken from the system.
So: concentrator on, oxygen out.

The granules don't like hot air at all. They can't stand it, so….. to put the air under pressure, we need
a compressor - that's why concentrators vibrate. In order to cool it, the air needs to go for a little
bit of a walk around the system - it's passed through a long pipe, which cools it a little naturally, and
the heat from it passes into the atmosphere. This again means that the concentrator becomes warm
as time goes on.

Right, while we're talking about the granules….. they have so many other sensitivities: damp - no,
they don't like that, either. So now you're asking 'So what? I'm not going to pour water over it.'

We now have to take a closer look at the compressed air.

We'll start with what happens when you turn the oxygen bottle on too fast (if you've worked with an
oxygen bottle, that is). When you open it too much too fast, ice is formed. That means that fast
escaping oxygen from a pressurised container cools down like mad. The concentrator does the same
thing, but with less pressure. This means that there's no ice, but there is condensed water.
IF: you turn the oxygen on the burner up too high too fast.

To avoid this, the concentrator has a regulator set on the flow meter, and with this you can set the
maximum withdrawal amount in advance.
I think that this information's important, because all concentrators work in the same way.

Due to the hydrophobic granules, the concentrator shouldn't be switched on for just a few minutes.
When the concentrator is on, to start with everything works at normal temperature, so relatively
cool. This causes a small amount of condensation to build up in the system. When the concentrator
has been running for some time and everything's warmed up, this condensation dries out.
Leaving the concentrator on for longer only means you use a little bit more electricity. So, if you need
to stop for a while, turn the fuel gas off, leave the oxygen valve open, and let the concentrator
continue puffing. It needs to be on for at least half an hour in order to stay happy.

That's not all there is to say about the granules. Perhaps you'll remember this: once a concentrator
overheated because the bead maker had set it on some polystyrene because of the vibrations.
The granules don't like to be too hot. They don't work any more if they do. If it really overheats, they
will die.
Therefore a concentrator should be sited so that air can get in and out and around it.

That's all the negative properties of the granules. They also have a good side, namely hanging on to
the nitrogen (thank you!) and they have a long life - as long as you heed all the above points. It is a
fact that a concentrator can give you 20,000 hours of working time.

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The reliable capabilities of the granules decrease with every ill treatment of them. It has been known
for a concentrator which has been used very little to produce three litres of oxygen instead of five.
Five litres of gas still come through, but only three are oxygen and the other two are air. This causes
the burner to hiss and to produce an irregular shaped flame.

This is obviously a problem, but not a disaster. If the concentrator can only be depended upon to
produce only three to three and a half litres, you can still make beads. It's just that you won't get
the whole spectrum of heat from the machine.

It's a bit like driving a Porsche with a moped engine in it. No, not quite so drastic - with a Beetle
engine, perhaps.

We all know, though, that new concentrators are the bees' knees, because they need to function
properly in medical circumstances. A technical medical instrument must function faultlessly, in order
that the patients don't feel worse after using it than they did beforehand.
That means that concentrators need to go through a very expensive testing and licensing process
according to medical standards. The production of oxygen must be monitored, they need alarm
systems, and they have to be quite enough to be situated next to a bed and still allow the patient to
sleep.
Great for the patients, superfluous for bead makers.
So, all that can be left out, right?