1. Introduction and Overview
1.1
General
Contamination of refrigerants either in storage cylinders or vehicle
air conditioning systems can lead to component corrosion, elevated
head pressures and system failures when utilized by unsuspecting
technicians. The ability of the technician to determine refrigerant
type and purity is severely hampered by the presence of air when
attempting to utilize temperature-pressure relations. The
development of various substitute refrigerants further complicates
the ability of a technician to identify refrigerant purity based
upon temperature-pressure relationships. The substitute refrigerant
blends can also introduce a flammability hazard to the technician
and the ultimate end user of the vehicle air conditioning system.
The YELLOW JACKET Refrigerant Identifier will provide a fast, easy
and accurate means to determine refrigerant purity in refrigerant
storage cylinders or directly in vehicle air conditioning systems.
The instrument utilizes non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) technology to
determine the weight concentrations of refrigerant types R12, R134a,
R22, as well as, hydrocarbons and air. Refrigerant purity is
automatically determined for refrigerants R12 and R134a by the
instrument to eliminate human error. Pure refrigerant is defined as
a refrigerant mixture that contains 98%, by weight, or greater of
either R12 or R134a.
The instrument is supplied complete with a R12 and R134a sample
hose, a R134a adapter fitting to permit sampling of ACME ported
cylinders, a 12 VDC power cord and all required plumbing housed
within a rugged, portable, storage case.
Sample gas is admitted into the instrument through the supplied
sample hose and presented to the sensing device. The instrument
provides the user with direct percent by weight concentrations of
R12, R134a, R22 and hydrocarbons. If the sample is determined to be
pure R134a, the instrument will provide a direct readout of the
weight percentage of air within the sample. Note that the
instrument does not consider air to be a contaminate since it can be
removed by most refrigerant recycling equipment. Since air is not
considered to be a contaminate, it is possible to read 100% R134a
plus 5% air. The instrument only considers the weights of the
refrigerant and contaminates in the total mixture for R134a as air
contamination in R12 systems causes only minor performance
degradation.
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