EXAIR designs, manufactures, sells and supports many Intelligent Compressed Air® products influencing many industries round the world. I have personally talked to many manufacturing companies needing our products and want to focus on just a… More
LIQUID ATOMIZING SPRAY NOZZLES – how they work and available options
EXAIR’s Liquid Atomizing Nozzles are some of the very few items that we make that do not use compressed air as the energy source. Instead, pressurized liquids provide the energy. Sometimes the nozzles will create an internal spinning liquid or the nozzle will cause the liquid to impact another surface. Each method , spinning or impacting, causes the liquid to lose its surface tension and atomize into small droplets. These nozzles can generate more liquid flow than our Air Atomizing Nozzles, which mix the liquid with air and produce the smallest droplet sizes. Depending on your liquid atomizing nozzle selection, you can spray anywhere from 0.48 gallons per minute, up to 17.64 gallons per minute.
This amount of liquid is typically used for cooling, rinsing, dust suppression and washing, but there are many other applications as well. These nozzles will work well with solution that have particulates in it, including slurries.
With a very small footprint, all stainless steel construction, and no moving parts, these are a great fit, for not only the easy to get to conveyors or containers, but also those hard to reach spots as well. Couple this with not needing air, and they are easy to plumb, and easy to use. They are made of 303 Stainless Steel and can accommodate temps up to 800°F.
Currently, we have 2 liquid nozzle types. One type is a FullStream Cone which comes in 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″ NPT. The other type is a HollowStream Cone that comes in 1/4″ and 3/8″ NPT. With these nozzles, the fluid is supplied into the body creating a swirling action within the vortex chamber. This Vortex is what creates the cone pattern. Then the precision orifice of the nozzle breaks this surface tension, and it leaves the nozzle with a full circular pattern (FullSstream), or a hollow ring pattern (HollowStream).
With this information, we are now down to choosing the size we need. We offer performance tables, within our catalogue, or on the website, that will show you the following:
- Inlet Connection
- Nozzle Capacity
- Max Free Passage (Orifice size for particulate)
- Flow Rates in Gallons (or Litres) per minute bases on psi of liquid
- Spray width based upon the psi, and distance from the surface
Here is an example of the FullStream Cone Nozzles – 1/4″ NPT:
As you choose your Liquid Atomizing Nozzle, it all comes down to the type of spray you need and how much liquid you need to spray. Once you decide betwen FullStream or HollowStream Cone and you know the amount of liquid pressure you have (and can adjust too) and the amount of liquid you are wanting to spray, comes down to scouting the performance tables of the sizes we offer and selecting the perfect one for your application.
Thank you for stopping by,
Brian Wages
Application Engineer EXAIR Corporation
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6 Steps to Optimizing Compressed Air: Turn it Down!!!
TURN IT DOWN!!! My wife screamed at 6:00am the morning of our first NFL Sunday. As a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals fan, it’s been a tradition in our house for me to wake everyone up while blaring Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” first thing in the morning each and every week 1. After 13 years together you’d think she would be prepared for this by now, but I still get her every time.
You may also hear your maintenance manager screaming to turn it down while out in the shop. They’re not talking about music volume. They’re more concerned about the compressed air pressure you’re using.
In any application necessitating the use of compressed air, pressure should be controlled to minimize the air consumption at the point of use. Pressure regulators are available to control the air pressure within the system and throttle the appropriate supply of air to any pneumatic device. As the last of the six steps to optimizing your compressed air system, controlling air at the point of use can often be overlooked.
Pressure regulators utilize a control knob that is turned to either increase/decrease tension on a spring. The spring puts a load on the diaphragm which separates internal air pressure from the ambient pressure. Typically made of a flexible rubber material, these diaphragms react very quickly to changes in the air supply. By either increasing or decreasing the flow of air based on the load on the diaphragm, downstream pressure remains fairly constant.
While one advantage of a pressure regulator is certainly maintaining consistent pressure to your compressed air devices, using them to minimize your pressure can result in dramatic savings to your costs of compressed air. As pressure and flow are directly related, lowering the pressure supplied results in less compressed air usage. EXAIR recommends operating your Intelligent Compressed Air Products at the minimum pressure necessary to achieve a successful application. If you notice a desirable result at a pressure of 60 PSIG, or even less, there’s no need to run full line pressure. In-line point of use pressure regulators are the simplest and most reliable way to allow you to dial down to the pressure to any compressed air operated product.
When selecting a pressure regulator for your application, it’s critical that it is appropriately sized to supply adequate volume to the point of use devices downstream. Doing so, minimizes the risk of experiencing “droop”. Droop is a decrease in outlet pressure from the specified setting due to an increase in flow rate. Droop occurs when the demand at the point of use exceeds the volume of air that the regulator can supply. By ensuring the pressure regulator is rated to deliver sufficient volume of air, you’ll reduce the chances of experiencing droop. EXAIR offers pressure regulators in kits along with many of our products, we’ve done the hard part for you and made sure they’re properly sized!
If you’re looking for ways to help lessen the demand on your compressor, EXAIR’s team of Application Engineers will be happy to help. Reach out to us via phone, chat, or e-mail and see for yourself just how easy it can be to start saving compressed air!
Tyler Daniel, CCASS
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD
YouTube. (2009). YouTube. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg.
Rudolf Hilsch, Shining a Light on the Vortex Tube
The Vortex Tube is also known as the Ranque – Hilsch tube is a device that takes a single source of compressed gas and splits it into two streams a hot and a cold. The Vortex Tube was invented in 1933 by French physicist Georges J. Ranque, however his findings never really went main stream until Physicist Rudolf Hilsch improved the design and published a widely read paper in 1947 on the device, which he called a Wirbelrohr. (Original publication in German can be found here.)
Compressed air is supplied into the tube where it passes through a set of nozzles that are tangent to the internal counter-bore. The design of the nozzles force the air to spin in a vortex motion at speeds up to 1,000,000 RPM. The spinning air turns 90° where a valve at one end allows some warmed air to escape. What does not escape, heads back down the tube in the inner stream where it loses heat and exhausts through the other end as cold air.
Both streams rotate in the same direction and at the same angular velocity. Due to the principle of conservation of angular momentum, the rotational speed of the inner vortex should increase. However, that’s not the case with the Vortex Tube. The best way to illustrate this is in Olympic Figure Skating. As the skater is wider, the spinning motion is much slower. As she decreases her overall radius, the velocity picks up dramatically and she spins much quicker. In a Vortex Tube, the speed of the inner vortex remains the same as it has lost angular momentum. The energy that is lost in this process is given off in the form of heat that has exhausted from the hot side of the tube. This loss of heat allows the inner vortex to be cooled, where it can be ducted and applied for a variety of industrial applications.
This Vortex Tube theory is utilized in basic Vortex Tubes, along with a variety of other products that have additional features specific for your application. EXAIR’s line of Cabinet Coolers, Cold Guns, Adjustable Spot Coolers, Mini Coolers, and Vortex Tubes all operate off of this same principle.
If you’re fascinated by this product and want to give it a try, EXAIR offers an unconditional 30-day guarantee. We have them all in stock and ready to ship as well, same day with an order received by 2:00 ET. Feel free to get in contact with us if you’d like to discuss how a vortex-based product could help you in your processes.
Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer
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Twitter: @EXAIR_JS
Rudolf Hilsche’s Publication Drawing provided by Die Zeitschrift für Naturforschung
(Photo Link https://zfn.mpdl.mpg.de/data/1/ZfN-1946-1-0208.pdf )
How to Identify Your Vortex Tube Model Number
Not a day goes by that we don’t receive a call from a customer that is having trouble identifying an EXAIR part. Due to the robust nature of our Vortex Tubes, they can be installed in applications for many years without any maintenance. When the time comes to expand that line, the labels may have worn off, the unit may be covered in grime or oil, or the personnel that originally ordered the product may no longer be with the company. In any case, one of the Application Engineers here at EXAIR will certainly be able to help!
I recently received an e-mail from a gentleman who was suffering from that very problem. They had a Vortex Tube installed in a camera cooling application near a boiler. The engineer who designed the project was no longer with the company, and they could not determine a Model number or when they had purchased it. They saw the EXAIR sticker, along with our contact information, and reached out for help.
The Vortex Tubes come in different sizes based on the available compressed air supply as well as the level of refrigeration needed. We have Vortex Tubes for max refrigeration that contain our “R” style generators, as well as Vortex Tubes for a maximum cold temperature (cryogenic applications) that contain our “C” style generators. In addition to our standard Vortex Tubes, we also offer models for High Temperature applications. In order to identify the style, you must remove the muffler or cold cap to access the generator installed inside. All standard Vortex Tubes will have a white plastic generator, all High Temperature models will have a brass generator installed inside. While we do include a small circular label that indicates the required SCFM at 100 PSIG, we still must know if it’s a maximum cold temperature or maximum refrigeration style of tube.
Included on the generator there will be a stamp that indicates the cooling capacity and air consumption of the tube. In this case, a plastic generator was found inside stamped with “30-R”. This tells us that it’s a Model 3230.
If you’re considering expanding a current line into other parts of your facility, or perhaps expanding to a new location and need help identifying your EXAIR products; give an Application Engineer a call and we’ll be sure you get the right products on order!
Tyler Daniel, CCASS
Application Engineer
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD
E-mail: tylerdaniel@exair.com