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Nanoparticles repel performance-sapping dirt

05 June, 2007

Rittal has developed a ceramic coating for its enclosure-cooling condensers which, it claims, will repel oil and dust particles, thus boosting their long-term performance.

Rittal TopTherm

Conventional condensers can suffer a 50% drop in performance as their cooling membranes become coated with dust. The new coating contains ceramic nanoparticles which create an ultra-thin, glass-like coating on the surface of the condenser coils, sealing any pores. This makes it almost impossible for foreign bodies to adhere to the surfaces and to accumulate.

Trials in automotive plants have shown that the coating helped to boost condenser efficiencies, reduce the need for servicing, and make cleaning easier. The coatings are available on wall- and roof-mounting condensers in ratings from 300–4,000W.

Rittal is also offering a technology that avoids the need to drain condensate from enclosure condensers – as well as eliminating the pipes, bottles and puddles that the draining process usually requires. The new system collects the condensate until it reaches a limit, when a heating element is triggered to evaporate the water back into the external atmosphere via a new routing tube.