The first gentleman was a construction worker that uses a core drill to drill holes through concrete walls.   He was working on a site using their core drill when all of a sudden the electric vacuum pump that holds the drill to the wall failed because the motor burnt up.   He was looking for something to replace the expensive electric motor and it had a few week lead time as it was not a normally stocked part for anyone he could find in the country.  When he started searching for Vacuum Generators he came across our website and decided to call in. 

The electric vacuum pump that burned up had very similar specifications to our largest E-Vac.  I recommended he take a look at the models 800017 and 810031 which are the largest In-Line E-Vacs that we offer. 

He then began to tell me that they already had an air compressor on site for a jack hammer.  After discussing with him the air consumption of the E-Vac he admitted that he would rather run something off of compressed air that has no internal moving parts and not another electric motor that could fail again and cost them a very expensive repair on the drill not to mention if it was to harm someone.  

The second gentleman called within an hour of the first and explained to me that they are a manufacturing company and have containers that they currently use a blower operated vacuum system to lift from a conveyor belt to a pallet on the floor.  The only problem with the system is that the containers are changing and the new shape of the lid will not allow their current system to work.  

After receiving a dimensioned drawing of his new container and lid I began to calculate and draw the vacuum cup system that would work for his application.   The containers could weigh anywhere from 60 – 100 pounds each.   Also with the shape of the new lid he was not able to lift from the center which would cause an unstable load if you only used one cup.  To further the complexity of the new system he also mentioned they would be running the old containers every now and then too so he needed to be able to lift either style of container.  

The system I designed for him included one 6” round cup that would lift the old containers and fit within the space for the large area on the new container.  Then I added two 2” cups to form a triangle that would allow the customer to lift the new rectangular containers level and safely but if he needed to lift the old container then he wouldn’t even have to switch out cups or lifting equipment at all.  This was achieved by using two Modular E-Vacs, one to power the main 6” cup and the other to power the 2” cups. 

As you can see our E-Vac Vacuum Generators are used across many fields and industries and sometimes they are even used for evacuation or sample retrieval.   If you have an application that you think might fit within these parameters, feel free to contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com

During numerous application phone calls and discussion I have been asked, “Well how can I justify implementing all these nozzles?”  Well I have an answer that you can use even if you aren’t looking to start anything new and just want to know how much air you are currently using.   The answer to this is to “Test the waters” by installing a Digital Flow Meter anywhere you wish to know your air consumption.

The Digital Flow Meter will allow you to measure in real-time the air consumption of your system.  These can be installed on your main compressed air line to check the volume of compressed air the compressor is putting out, or even select a single machine and install it to see which device is using the most compressed air in your system.  If you have multiples of the same machine then install it one of the machines to get a good baseline reading for how your machines currently run, then implement new compressed air processes to allow you to see the benefits of the new process compared to the old. 

This also is an ideal installation and use of the Summing Remote Display which will allow you to monitor the air consumption up to 50 ft. away from the Digital Flow Meter.  The Summing Remote Display allows you to view the current usage from the DFM, sum the total usage for a 24 hour period of time, or a straight cumulative usage that will track up to 9,999 SCFM.  This would even permit a breakdown of per shift usage.  To see if one operator is using more compressed air than others to perform the same task. 

All in all if you are debating on whether or not to look into an engineered compressed air blow off operation then why not sample one entire machine and have sufficient data to determine the return on investment of the new system. 

If you would like to discuss the Digital Flow Meter, Summing Remote Display, or any compressed air application feel free to contact us. 

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com

2. Lower Your Air Consumption – While lowering pressure will also lower consumption you probably have bigger issues than simply lowering main pressure a few PSIG. Retrofitting open blow offs and homemade blow offs with engineered products like air nozzles and air knives  is a simple, low-cost and fast way to recover wasted energy.

3. Regulate your Compressor - A regulation control on the compressor itself will allow for adjustments for different production schedules. You can run at peak performance during top production hours and program the compressor to reduce pressure during off hours and weekends. Large systems can use multiple compressors while smaller systems can benefit from newer compressors with this adjustment built right in.

4. Maintain Good Air Quality - Keeping your air quality high can lower maintenance needs, keep the system reliable and consistent, reduce wear on your air powered equipment. If designing a new system it is good to include an oiless compressor and an air dryer to keep good quality air. Good air quality at every opportunity will reduce wear on the entire system and keep down maintenance costs. It will also keep pressure up by eliminating any pressure loss through other filters.

5. Proper Maintenance – Planning your system well from the beginning will clearly reduce maintenance. Monitoring your system regularly is always a good plan as well. Many compressor manufacturers have maintenance services and can keep your compressor up to snuff. Letting a certified technician look over your compressor and system is not a bad idea of you are not staffed for this task. A well maintained compressor will last a long time can allow you to anticipate the service life of the machine and its components.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
KirkEdwards@exair.com

The DSLM will measure sound levels from 35dB – 130dB and has a frequency range of 31.5Hz – 8 kHz, it is also NIST Certified.  The unit is used to monitor what sound levels you may have at your operator stations to make sure you are not exceeding the OSHA maximum allowable noise exposure or to find out if one blow off operation is in fact louder than another. 
With the unit in hand the customer was able to perform his sound audit and discovered that some non engineered nozzles that he thought were under 85 dBA were in fact louder and exceeding his requirement.  These nozzles were all removed and replaced with EXAIR nozzles that meet or exceed OSHA requirements.
The DSLM also allowed him to determine which of his operators were going to be required to wear hearing protection and those that were not.  The company now performs a monthly check on all of their systems to ensure nothing has changed and that none of their equipment needs replaced.  They also send their DSLM to us once a year to have it recalibrated and certified.
All in all the Digital Sound Level Meter can save employees hearing and help you to make sure that your nozzles are all performing at the sound levels you think they are.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com

                Rather than crank up your compressed air or have to make a new mount/ manifold every time there is a line change, install some of our Stay Set Hoses and or Swivel fittings. 

                The Stay Set Hoses can be bent and formed to reach almost any angle of a part that is coming through your blowoff stage.   The Stay Set Hoses are available in ¼” MNPT fittings, 1/8” MNPT fittings, or a combination of both, along with a variety of lengths.  You can mount anything from a Nano Super Air Nozzle all the way up to a Super Air Amplifier or even a Super Air Knife.   These would make adjusting your blowoff process much simpler when doing a line change. All you have to do is grab the hose with your hands and reposition to the correct location for the new product run.  If you don’t need that much adaptability, say you just need to refocus the nozzles every once in a while for a size change, check out our Swivel Fittings.  The application below is used on a line where the product sizes and features change frequently.

                The Swivel Fittings are offered in a variety of sizes and allow movement of 25 degrees.  They are also constructed of 303 Stainless Steel.  

                All in all, if you struggle with line changes and your rigid mount blowoff process playing nice together, it may be time to consider our Stay Set Hoses and/or Swivel Fittings.  

 Have a good 4th of July to all of our followers in the US, and a great weekend to to everyone. 

Brian Farno

Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com

            In some cases your facility may not be staffed or equipped properly to handle the cleaning and refurbish of a Super Air Knife or a Reversible Drum Vac for instance.  This is a service that we can provide to you here at EXAIR Corp.

            Take the Reversible Drum Vac  (RDV) that is shown above.   It was thought that this RDV was beyond repair.  The float could not even move because of all of the buildup.  The first step we took was to send the customer a PDF file we have on the process to clean a RDV.  One of the slides is shown below. 

             While this customer was not comfortable trying to return the product back to new, working condition we offered to have them send it to us for refurbish.  If you have a Reversible Drum Vac and are in need of cleaning please contact us, and we’ll get this slide show to you.

            This unit was in bad shape.  When we checked the flow rates on the RDV it was off the charts bad. After we refurbished the unit and replaced a single O-Ring, (also put new stickers on it to make it shine like new) the RDV worked just as good as a brand new unit.   It was sent back to the customer to be placed back into service instead of into a scrap bin.

            This is yet another way we are able to prove to you our customer that we want to do what is best for you.  We don’t want to just make a sale but build a relationship where we can not only help you get your application started up and running pristine, but also maintain that system and when it needs a little bit of work we’re here to offer our services.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com

In the eighties we were in tall cotton with a networked computer system running a point of sale program offered by Radio Shack, life couldn’t get better.

In the nineties we had cell phones as big as a brick, PC’s with color screens and not the monochrome green, automated reorder systems for parts, equipment service tracking, and some of us were dabbling in something called the world-wide web thinking it might actually be used someday by customers looking for us.

Entering the 21st century, everyone is carrying around laptops, I-pads, flip phones with built-in cameras and all are interconnected. Service techs and sales staff can access equipment, customer and part records with just a few mouse clicks. Trucks get tracked and dispatched with the use of global positioning, and the internet has become an integral part of our business and personal communications.

At dinner parties, when asked what I do for a living, a frequent riposte is ” so you work for an old school brick and mortar company” In actuality nothing can be further from the truth. I counter question them as to how high-tech is their customer service.

• Can their customers talk directly with technical staff by online chat, e-mail. phone, and FAX ? EXAIR customers can.
• Can their customers attain product information, prints, manuals, and pricing 24/7 ? EXAIR customers can. All this is posted on the internet.
• Does their company interact with their customers through social media? EXAIR interacts with customers through Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging.

By now the conversation has generated shuffling feet and lowered eyes because they have come to realize their company’s automated telephone system is akin to the “old school” electric calculator.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com

The customer had noted on the worksheet that they had both static and mechanical adhesion of particles from the cutting operation to the finished rolls of tape.  Their current process was to have an operator remove each roll of tape by hand from this bin then use an everyday blow off gun to remove all the particles.   Set the air gun down then have to open an antistatic bag and package the roll of tape.  The issue was the particles were getting blown into the air and then coming back to the surface of the tape because of the static charge, along with the operator found it cumbersome to hold the air gun with one hand while trying to blow off the roll of tape and effectively blow off the entire roll. 

The solution for this is to provide a static eliminating blow off station for the operator to use in order to complete the task both easier and more efficient.  I suggested the customer use a Super Ion Air Knife with a Universal Mounting System to mount it on the operator station and a Foot Pedal to turn the air on and off.  This is going to allow the operator to use both hands to handle the roll of tape and pass it under the laminar flow of air from the knife and simply flip it over to cover the underside.  Then he can place the Roll of tape straight into the bag.  He will not be constantly picking up and setting down an air gun and also will take less time to blow off the roll because he simply has to swipe the roll of tape through the stream once on each face of the tape to blow all particles and eliminate all the static from the roll. 

This is one of many applications that have been simplified or improved as the result of our Application Assistance Worksheet.  Here at EXAIR we try to offer every avenue possible for you, the customer, to contact us with your compressed air problem areas.

Brian Farno
Applicatioin Engineer
brianfarno@exair.com

ISO 8573-1 is the International Standard for Air Quality Classes. It lays the ground rules for allowable levels of solids, moisture and liquid condensate, and lubricants in the compressed air source.

Though the standard has very specific values for maximum particle size, maximum pressure dew point and maximum oil content for different industries and/or environments we can generalize a bit and express the levels of air quality like this:
     Plant Air – general plant compressed air used for air tools, nozzles etc.
     Instrument Air – found in laboratories, paint and powder coat booths, used for climate control.
     Process Air – used in food and pharmaceutical applications, electronics applications.
     Breathing Air – used for breathing respirators, breathing tanks and hospital air systems.

Achieving the different levels of air quality can be done with 3 basic types of filtration.
     1. Particulate - a filter element removes particles larger than the opening in the filter material. Typically done with particles greater than 1 micron.
     2. Coalescing - use different methods to capture the particles; 1) direct interception - works like a sieve, 2) Inertial impaction – collision with filter media fibers, 3) Diffusion – particles travel in a spiral motion and are captured in the filter media.
     3. Adsorption - the filter element holds the contaminants by molecular adhesion.

The cleaner your air needs to be the more of these filtration methods you will use. adsorption will remove more and finer particles than a simple particulate filter. And many applications will use a combination of these methods, especially if you are using a lubricated air compressor to generate your compressed air.

EXAIR products, all of which need a source of “clean, dry air” will operate very well utilizing a source of plant air and only a particulate filter. Your process, environment or type of compressor will dictate if you need to supply additional filtration methods or better air quality. If you are using a lubricated compressor or have lubricant in your compressed air lines from another source, you will want to use a coalescing oil removal filter.  

EXAIR stocks 5 micron particulate filters which are properly sized for each individual product as an option for our customers if they choose. We also stock coalescing oil removal filters for customers who may need to remove oil from the air. Replacement filter elements are also available and should be replaced at least twice a year, depending on the quality of your air.

Remember to ask about filtration if you have any concerns about your air quality. We can assist in sizing up the proper filters to get the air quality we recommend for proper operation and longevity of our products.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

In the U.S. alone, during the period 1980 to 2005, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reports 281 explosions caused by ignitable combustible dust atmospheres. They resulted in 199 fatalities and 718 injuries. (ref 1) Similar data was compiled in the UK, where the Health and Safety Executive reported 303 explosions over a nine-year period. And German records show 426 similar incidents over a 20 year period. (ref 2)      

Since their report was published, the CSB has repeatedly requested that OSHA take more action to regulate the safety of operations processing combustible and flammable powders. The 2008 sugar refinery explosion at the Port Wentworth plant of Imperial Sugar should be a warning to a broad range of industries and just how risky and relevant dust explosions are.      

Sectors with recorded incidents of combustible dust fires and explosions.      

Analysis of over 1100 events the following processes have been found to be the leading causes.

·  Dust collection systems

·  Powder grinding and pulverizing

·  Silo & container filling

·  Powder mixing and blending

Electrostatic discharges account for 10% of known primary ignition sources. Even though the majority of combustible dusts have higher minimum ignition energy (MIE) than flammable vapors, the amount of energy available from electrostatic discharges within contained environments will ignite the vast majority of combustible dusts.

Several contributing factors though, need to be present to support the ignition of a combustible dust cloud: 

• A dispersed dust cloud-oxygen mixture that is above its Minimum Explosion Concentration (MEC).
• Physical containment of the dust cloud that will lead to rapid pressure build-up.
• A heat source with enough energy to ignite the combustible atmosphere

To prevent uncontrolled electrostatic discharges posing a fire and explosion hazard in powder processing operations, a thorough static audit should be conducted by qualified personnel. The audit should focus on investigating and identifying situations where a charge has the potential to accumulate on conductive and semi-conductive components.

For situations where there is a potential for components within the system to be isolated, dedicated grounding equipment should be installed to monitor and control the release of static electricity.”The American Petroleum Institute (ref 3) recommends that all connecting metal parts of  a vacuum collection system are conductive to less than 10 ohms

 I’ve only scratched the surface on this topic. Hopefully it has provided a greater appreciation for potentially dangerous applications in your facility and will prompt you to seek the assistance of a professional to insure proper installation of your equipment.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com

Foot notes:

(1) Report No. 2006-H-1 “Combustible Dust Hazard Study”, Chemical Safety Board (2006).
(2) Dust Explosion Scenarios and Case Histories in the CCPS Guidelines for Safe Handling of Powders and Bulk Solids”, Grossel, S.S., Zalosh, R.G., Center for Chemical Process Safety, (2005)
(3) API RP 2003: Protection Against Ignitions Arising out of Static, Lightning, and Stray Currents”, American Petroleum Institute (2008)