A: Please refer to the "Animation for the principle of PICCOLO drying"

PICCOLO contains hollow fiber water-separation membrane (Our product: SP module) in itself.
Pressured air from the compressor is to be desiccated while it is going through the module and changed into an ultra-dry air at the end. Then it will be heated to the adequate temperature, and lead to the hopper where pellet material is waiting for desiccated.

However, only one pass of ultra-dry air from SP module to the hopper and then being exhausted can not be effective enough.
One pass provides too short time for the ultra-dry air and the pellets for contact. As a result, the water content percentage of the pellets can not be decreased enough and the exhausted air is still very dry. Consequently the desiccation process itself is quite ineffective and insufficient.


As the speed of the desiccation is related to the amount of the dry air, large quantity of dry air is to be flowed on the surface of the pellets. We have searched for the method how to make the contact time between the dry air and the pellets inside of the PICCOLO longer. In other words how to make the circular flow consists of large quantity of dry air. At last, we have found it.

The dry air from SP module has high pressure energy while the circular air flow among the pellets has the pressure approximately equal to that of the normal atmosphere. PICCOLO is making large quantity of circular air flow by utilizing this pressure difference.

An ejector which can generate amplified large volume of air flow by involving surrounding air when high speed of air current is squeezed into a cylindrical nozzle and transforms pressure energy into velocity energy.
PICCOLO has this kind of ejector (Air current amplifier) inside of itself.

The compressed air generated by providing energy to the usual atmosphere using compressors, efficiently use up the enthalpy of the pressured air.

This is the functionality of the circular air flow mechanism which is supporting energy saving operation of PICCOLO materialized by the advantage of the ejectors.

If you have an experience to take a look of the compressed air gushing out accompanied by drained water, you can not believe that the air is dry. However the drainage is the result of the dehumidification, it is the extracted water from the air.

The air inhaled into the compressor contains water molecules in gaseous phase. As it is compressed, water molecules are to be concentrated and transformed into aqueous phase. Then the liquid water is to be separated from the atmosphere, and consequently the air can be dehumidified. As the compressed air at this phase still in a saturated state (ie. relative humidity : 100%RH), it is not dry literally. However most of the waters contained in the inhaled air have been removed.

As PICCOLO is using the pressured air from which the drainage has been eliminated the relative humidity is to be decreased from the saturation state into as low as 10% (at 30℃) around which the air can be regarded as desiccating media.

The compressed air provided into PICCOLO is to be further eliminated moisture it contains by utilizing SP module water separation membrane down to relative humidity lower than 2% (at 30 ℃, normal air pressure) and is to be used for drying.

A: Please take a look on the animation explaining the functionality of "SP module (water separation membrane)". Inside of the SP module, the separation membranes made of polymers are contained as a bunch of thin hollow fibers.

The hollow fiber can transfer only the water molecules (with some gas) contained in the pressured air passing through inside of it , by make them penetrate to its membrane and diffuse them to the outside. This is how to get the dehumidified air relatively easy by one pass processing.

The SP module is a high performance membrane type dryer which can generate attainable lowest due point below than -60℃。

A: The customers can select the most suitable type and combination from wide product portfolio in regards of performance, capacity and installation method.

Humidity indicator (optional) : has blue color when the air humidity is lower than 20% and turns into pink when the humidity is higher than 20%.
Dew point hygrometer (optional) : indicates the air dew point by digital numbers.

A3: Counter measure for oil.
Oil adhered to the surface of the separation membrane decreases dehumidification performance. When you use lub compresser, oil mist filter is required to be installed. Upon your request, we will deliver our product with the filter.