Hydraulics and Pneumatics

[js22]

I have a couple of questions. 
1.  Are there any labs out there with a process/equipment to clean pressure gauges?
2.  Do you know of any instruction that tell you specifically to calibrate gauges with the same medium it is used with.

I know that you should only cal.  hydraulic gauges with hydraulic fluid (preferably the fluid the customer uses it with).  And like-wise with pneumatic gauges (we just use nitrogen).  Any K-6/phys-D person know this.  I'm just trying to find something in writing that I can use to back me up.
What do you think? :?

[skolito]

try the king nutronics 3646
http://www.kingnutronics.com/m3646.htm






edited to allow URL
~Hoopty

[js22]

We have one of those, but we can't find an acceptable substance to use.  Freon was suggested, but we can't use that here.  I was instructed to use it with 100% alcohol, and it blew up.  Luckily I wasn't hurt. 

[skolito]

Genesolv 2000.  not as good as trike but it works decent

[js22]

Thanks I'll check it out. 
What about calibrating with the same medium?

[skolito]

I work in a comercial cal lab not a stds lab so we do not worry about medium however I do not cal anything pneumatic with anything but N2 and all other gages with distilled H2O and then clean the gage after.  I do not think a medium will make that big a difference on hyd.  gages because most of them are considered high pressure and you will not see any change.  Of course I could be wrong on that account.  Does anyone esle got an opinion?

[js22]

We can't use Genesolv due to it's high toxicity.  I just looked into it and checked out the MSDS.

[skolito]

man that really blows let me look around and see what my other branches are using to clean their gages might take me awhile tho

[jimmyc]

i don't understand how 100% alcohol blew anything up?  if you over pressurized the gage, then it could blow the gage up.   if you clean the gage, allow it to dry, calibrate it, then clean the gage and allow it to dry, there should be no problem using any hydraulic type fluid for and liquid based gages.   there is no way to really use customers fluids to calibrate every gage.   you would run around forever cleaning and refilling any handpump type calibrator or you would need 100 different fluid separators.

[js22]

The 3646 blew up.   Alcohol was leaking due to a bad connection inside the 3646.   It has a vaccum pump in it that when it was started it some how gave off enough heat to cause an explosion due to the alcohol that had accumulated inside.   You're suppose to use Freon, but we can't use hardly anything here that is slightly toxic.   Alcohol should have NEVER been used.   I was just going on information that was told to me.  

[js22]

I have some info from ASME B40.  100-2005 about gauges and mediums.   The main thing I want to know is why do some people cal hydraulic gauges on pneumatic systems using a fluid traps? And if you do this, how can you successfully clean a gauge so it will not affect/damage your standard?  That's what I can't find. 

[flew-da-coup]

You can use a fluid seperator instead of a fluid trap that way you cannot contaminate your system. I have seen fluid traps being used in the past and it "seemed" to not contaminate the system.

For what it's worth.