Pure Energy M10 CO2 Manual - English

SETTING UP THE FILL STATION PLEASE NOTE: THIS FILL STATION IS FOR USE WITH CO2 ONLY! Before you even remove the safety cap on the bulk cylinder, the bulk cylinder MUST be solidly secured to a post or wall bracket. If the cylinder were to be knocked over, the valve could be broken off, and the cylinder “Launched”. To perform fills, the fill station must be attached to the CO2 supply tank, and the discharge vent hose must be connected. Both of these operations are simple, and require little time. The fill station is equipped with a standard “CGA 320” fitting on it’s input side (the side labeled “BULK TANK”). This fitting will connect to any standard CO2 bulk tank in the United States. Please note that the threads are right –handed, and that a sealing washer is required.

The bulk supply tank you connect to must always be equipped with an internal “dip tube” because we wish to dispense the liquid CO2 from the bottom of the bulk supply tank. On the side of the fill station you will notice a port labeled “VENT”. For safety reasons, a VENT hose should be run from this port to a safe discharge point. Depending on your circumstances, there are several ways of routing your VENT line. If you are operating outdoors, you really only need enough vent line to direct the exhausting gas away from the operator and bystanders. Care should be taken to secure the end of this line solidly, because a loose hose can “whip” dangerously when high pressure gas is discharged from it. If you are operating indoors, where the discharge noise is objectionable, you have two options. The first and most desirable option is to run the VENT hose to a point where it can exhaust outside. The second is to use the accessory muffler unit . The muffler unit sits on the floor, and is connected to the vent port with a five foot hose. NOTE: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANY OF THE SMALL, LOW PRESSURE INDUSTRIAL AIR MUFFLERS BE SUBSTITUTED FOR THE PROPER MUFFLER!! THESE UNITS ARE NOT PRESSURE RATED FOR THIS SERVICE, AND CANNOT TOLERATE THE POSSIBLE ACCUMILATION OF DRY ICE. An important point to consider when setting up your fill station is that high concentrations of CO2 can pose a serious inhalation hazard. If you are operating and venting indoors, your fill station must be located in an area where there is adequate ventilation. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE FILL STATION BE LOCATED IN AN ENCLOSED SPACE LIKE A SMALL UTILITY ROOM OR STORAGE AREA!!!!

DOING THE FILL OPERATION 1: KNOW THE BOTTLE YOU’RE FILLING! In order to properly fill a CO2 bottle, you need some basic information, and virtually all of this information comes right off the label and the stamped markings on the bottle. Because there are Federal Standards involved, this information is found in the form of a standard data line. An example taken from an aluminum bottle is shown below.

DOT – 3AL 1800 H50HD ACME 04^94 – 2.5# CO2 While this may look confusing at first, it is really quite simple. This line of data breaks down like this:

Department of Transportation (a Federal Agency). The specification standard the bottle conforms to.

The working pressure rating of the bottle. The model and manufacturer of the bottle. The production date of the bottle. The amount of CO2 the bottle is rated to hold.

The first bit of information you need is the production date on the bottle. In the United States, it is Federal Law that any gas storage vessel over two inches in diameter must be periodically retested. If the bottle is steel or aluminum, it must be re-tested every five years. If it is one of the new fiberglass composite bottles, it must be re-tested every three years. As a fill operator, the very first thing you should check is the date on the bottle. As you can see in our example, our aluminum bottle was born in April of 1994. It would be illegal to refill this bottle after April of 1999. (At least until it had been re-tested and re-marked.) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU FILL AN OUT-OF-DATE BOTTLE. The next piece of information you want is the Working Pressure Rating. According to Federal Law, bottles for CO2 use must have a working pressure rating of at least 1800 PSI. If the bottle you are being asked to fill is not rated for at least 1800 PSI, DO NOT FILL IT!! The last piece of information you want off the label is the quantity of CO2 the bottle may be safely filled with. Depending on the size of the bottle and the manufacturer, this may be expressed either in ounces or pounds. In the case of our example bottle, we see that this bottle is rated for 2.5 pounds of CO2. NEVER PUT MORE THAN THE RATED AMOUNT OF CO2 INTO A BOTTLE!! To understand the relevance and importance of the last statement, it is necessary to give you a little bit of chemistry and physics. We will try to keep it painless. The CO2 you are dispensing into the customer’s bottle is stored in a liquid state, under high pressure. At 70 degrees, the internal bottle pressure is about 850 PSI. This is OK., because 850 PSI is a good pressure for most airguns. Unfortunately for us, at 89 degrees, CO2 suddenly refuses to behave like a liquid. All the liquid in that bottle “jumps phase” and becomes a very dense, high pressure gas. Since it is still occupying the same space, the bottle pressure can instantly jump into the 1800 PSI range.. To allow for this, the Department of Transportation created a standard where CO2 vessels are never filled more than 67%…