In rooms for human use where precision, safety, and stability are essential, ACT provides the latest state of the art molecular sieve technology. To avoid power surge and tripped breakers, our air units activate themselves sequentially, spreading the surge gently over several seconds. ACT’s technology triggers air units only when necessary to consume a minimum of energy.

ACT utilizes multiple air units for each room to provide high performance, redundancy and reliability. With N+1 redundancy (where N is the minimum number of units to reach performance standards), one air unit’s failure does not affect the room’s altitude. If a unit requires maintenance or repair, others continue to function normally and pick up the load. As a result, service is continuous and uninterrupted except in a complete power failure.

In systems without N+1 redundancy, ordinary maintenance and repairs require shutting down the entire system leaving you without service. Just having multiple air units is not enough. N+ 1 units are required to ensure uninterrupted operation.

Each ACT Air Separation Unit operates in four distinct modes:

• Oxygen Extraction –this mode quickly removes oxygen from the room for the fastest times to altitude and to overcome air infiltration from entries and exits.
• Hypoxic Ventilation –increases air exchange to maximize air quality while maintaining altitude.
• Air Ventilation –increases fresh air ventilation during periods of high activity.
• Standby – to conserve energy and reduce operating costs when not needed.

These four modes work together to precisely mix air affording a greater range of responses to changing atmospheric conditions, air quality, and oxygen levels. The advantages are getting to altitude quickly, overcoming leakage, keeping the air fresh and conserving energy.

Most altitude systems with generic nitrogen generators and large compressors attempt to stabilize oxygen levels with simple on-off switches – nitrogen is either on or off. This intermittent alternation creates wild swings and overshooting oxygen levels. When oxygen levels fluctuate, altitude simulation will be unstable even during periods of constant barometric pressure. These fluctuations can result in errors of altitude simulation of hundreds of meters or more.

ACT’s controller operates in a technique known as Ratio-Control™. This allows for a mix of different modes to provide continuously variable control of oxygen. Each air unit functions in harmony with the others to provide fine control of oxygen and stable altitude simulation.

Assuming low air infiltration rates in the engineering process can lead to disappointing performance and added expense. While low air exchange rates may occur periodically, many factors can increase air exchange in the real world, including entries, exits, pressure variances, and air movement inside or outside the room. It is not uncommon for projected air infiltration rates to double in actual use.

ACT engineers and sizes its systems for real-world use, not ideal conditions. ACT’s system of multiple air units with four modes of operation is by far the fastest, most effective means of dealing with periods of higher air exchange, keeping altitude controlled and stable.

At 26kg, ACT’s air units are easily handled by one man making plug-and-play replacement fast, easy and inexpensive. Maintenance is simplified when air units can be moved easily. Other systems may weigh 1,000 kg or more that may quick replacement impossible, and can even require additional structural support in the building.

ACT air separation units are the quietest available at any price. We mitigate mechanical noise by mounting compressors on spring suspensions. In addition, the entire air unit is placed on sound attenuating pads. An additional platform suspension is added to prevent vibration transmission to adjoining spaces. Oxygen delivery is silenced. Even the air unit’s external air intake and waste gas disposal lines include silencers to reduce noise. Most ACT altitude rooms operate nearly silently.

Note: The decibel scale is logarithmic and is not additive. Even 100 air units at 48 Db will be quieter than a 100 HP compressor at 69 Db, or three 40 H.P. compressors at a total of 70 Db.

Due to the long lifespan of Zeolite crystals in ACT’s air separation system, ACT’s systems can operate for many years. Zeolite crystals can easily perform at optimum levels for ten years or more without being replaced. By contrast, membranes and cheaper systems are more fragile and start deteriorating from the moment they are turned on and are expensive to replace.

ACT provides particulate air filters to eliminate dust, viruses, bacteria, and fine particles as small as .3 microns to keep the air pure. The result is the freshest and healthiest air possible and a pleasant environment in every altitude room.

With less advanced technology, maintenance can add high yearly operating costs. Maintenance costs for large compressors are considerably higher than those for ACT’s multiple unit solution utilizing long-life oil-free compressors.

In addition, systems using large central compressors require that the entire system be inoperable during periods of maintenance.

ACT air units outperform any other, especially during periods of high air infiltration. Our engineers carefully consider real-world scenarios and design accordingly.