I had the pleasure of helping a caller out with a cleanup problem not long ago. Normally, calls involving cleanups involve a discussion of how our Industrial Housekeeping Products might replace an electric shop vacuum… More
Compressed Air Amplifiers Outperform Fans for Cooling Parts
When seeking a suitable solution for cooling or drying your parts, you may be tempted to try out a low-cost fan to get the job done. While fans do a great job of keeping you cool during the warmer months, they’re not the best choice for cooling or drying parts. Have you ever noticed that when standing in front of a fan the flow pattern is not consistent? This is due to the nature in which the fan blades create that air flow by “slapping” the air as they spin rapidly. The air flow that exits from the fan is turbulent and is not as effective as the laminar air flow pattern that is produced by EXAIR’s Super Air Amplifier. The Super Air Amplifier utilizes a patented shim design that maintains a critical position of the air gap and creates a laminar air flow pattern that will exit the outlet of the unit.
In addition to providing laminar air flow more conducive for cooling and drying, the Super Air Amplifier provides much more air that can be directed at the target. A standard 2.36” x 2.36” DC operated fan provides anywhere from 12-27 CFM at the outlet, depending on the model. For comparison, a Model 120022 2” Super Air Amplifier will provide 341 SCFM at the outlet when operated at 80 psig. At just 6” away from the outlet, this value increases to 1,023 SCFM!! When compared to the fan outlet air flow, the Super Air Amplifier produces more than an 1,100% increase in air volume!
When replacing a fan with a Super Air Amplifier, the process time can be dramatically reduced. The increase in air volume significantly reduces the contact time that your part will need to be exposed to the air flow, allowing you to increase your line speed and decrease the overall production cost of the part. This is achieved due to the nature in which a Super Air Amplifier draws in air from the ambient environment. At amplification ratios as great as 25:1, the Super Air Amplifier is the best way to move a lot of air volume across the part with very little compressed air supplied to it. Check out the video
In addition to providing laminar airflow and increasing the volume of air, the Super Air Amplifier is also infinitely adjustable through one of two ways. Each size Super Air Amplifier has a shim set that can be purchased. Swapping out the stock shim for a thinner shim will reduce the compressed air consumption, force, and flow. Installing a thicker shim will increase it. Additionally, the force and flow can also be adjusted by regulating the input supply pressure through the use of a pressure regulator. With sizes ranges from ¾” up to 8”, there’s a Super Air Amplifier for all applications. Give us a call today to see how you can optimize your process by replacing your fans with one or more Super Air Amplifiers.
Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@Exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD
Sliding Vane Compressors: How they Work
When it comes to air compressors there are many different types to choose from. Each compressor performs differently and have their own benefits and downfalls. In this case we will be taking a look a Sliding Vane Compressor which is a positive-displacement compressor. Positive-displacement type compressors have a given amount of air or gas that gets trapped in a compression chamber. From there the volume of that air is mechanically reduced causing an increase in the pressure. Sliding vane compressors use a circular stator that is housed in a cylindrical rotor; the rotor contains radially positioned slots where the vanes reside. These vanes are what create the compression in the “cells”.
The inlet port on the system is positioned in a way that allows the air flow into each cell, optimizing the amount of air that each cell can hold. Once the air enters the system the cell size is reduced down farther and farther as rotation continues and each vane is pushed back into its original slot in the rotor. Compression will continue until each cell reaches the discharge port. One of the more common forms of a sliding vane compressor is the lubricant injected variety. These compressors inject a lubricant into the chamber to lubricate the walls and the vanes; this removes the heat of compression, as well as provide a seal on the cell. These air compressors are generally sold in a 10 – 200 HP range with capacities running between 40 – 800 acfm.
Advantages of a lubricant injected sliding-vane compressor include:
- Compact size
- Relatively low purchase cost
- Vibration-free operation does not require special foundations
- Routine maintenance includes lubricant and filter changes
Some of the disadvantages that come with this type of compressor:
- Less efficient than the rotary screw type
- Lubricant carryover into the delivered air will require proper maintenance of an oil-removal filtration system
- Will require periodic lubricant changes
If you have any questions about compressed air systems or want more information on any of EXAIR’s products, give us a call, we have a team of Application Engineers ready to answer your questions and recommend a solution for your applications.
Cody Biehle
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Photo Credit to Compressed Air Challenge Handbook
Battling Heat Transfer
If you haven’t read many of my blogs then this may be a surprise. I like to use videos to embellish the typed word. I find this is an effective way and often gives better understanding when available. Today’s discussion is nothing short of benefiting from a video.
We’ve shared before that there are three types of heat transfer, more if you go into sub-categories of each. These types are Convection, Conduction, and Radiation. If you want a better understanding of those, feel free to check out Russ Bowman’s blog here. Thanks to the US Navy’s nuclear power school, he is definitely one of the heat transfer experts at EXAIR. If you are a visual learner like myself, check out the video below.
The Application Engineering team at EXAIR handles any call where customers may not understand what EXAIR product is best suited for their application. A good number of these applications revolve around cooling down a part, area, electrical cabinet, or preventing heat from entering those areas. Understanding what type of heat transfer we are going to be combating is often helpful for us to best select an engineered solution for your needs.
Other variables that are helpful to know are:
Part / cabinet dimensions
Material of construction
External ambient temperature
If a cabinet, the internal air temperature
Maximum ambient temperature
Desired temperature
Amount of time available
Area to work with / installation area
Understanding several of these variables will often help us determine if we need to look more towards a spot cooler that is based on the vortex tube or if we can use the entrained ambient air to help mitigate the heat transfer you are seeing.
If you would like to discuss cooling your part, electrical cabinet, or processes, EXAIR is available. Or if you want help trying to determine the best product for your process contact us.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
Video Source: Heat Transfer: Crash Course Engineering #14, Aug 23, 2018 – via CrashCourse – Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK7G6l_K6sA
Piping and Instrumentation diagrams (P&ID)
When it comes to drawings and diagrams to map out a process system, the piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID) are a great way to situate and find components. They use different symbols to represent the type of products, the layout in the system, installation, and process flow. These standard symbols are created by ANSI or ISO. They are used in electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic processes. Since EXAIR has been manufacturing Intelligent Compressed Air Products since 1983, I will cover some pneumatic symbols and the process flow in this blog.
A colleague, Russ Bowman, wrote an article about “Knowing Your Symbols Is Key To Understanding Your Drawings”. As a reference, air compressors are the start of your pneumatic system, and there are different types as represented by the symbols below.
Air compressors are considered the fourth utility in industries because they use so much electricity; and they are inefficient. So, you need to use the compressed air as efficiently as possible. As a typical pneumatic system, the air compressors, receiver tanks and compressed air dryers would be on the supply side. The distribution system, or piping, connects the supply side to the demand side. This symbol is represented by a simple line. The demand side will have many different types of pneumatic devices. Since there are so many, ANSI or ISO has created some common types of equipment. But if there isn’t a symbol created to represent that part, the idea is to draw a basic shape and mark it.
As an example, if I were to do a P&ID diagram of the EXAIR Super Air Knife Kit; it would look like the above diagram. The kit will include the Super Air Knife with an Automatic Drain Filter Separator and a Pressure Regulator. The Filter Separator is a diamond shape and since it has an Automatic Drain, a triangle is placed at the bottom. Filter Separators are used to clean the compressed air and keep the Super Air Knife clean. The Automatic Drain will discard water and oil from the filter bowl when it accumulates over a float. The next item is the pressure regulator which is represented by a rectangle with an adjustment knob to “dial in” the desired blowing force. And at the end, we drew a rectangle, which does represent a Super Air Knife, as marked.
Using the P&ID diagram for the process flow is also important. You noticed that the Filter Separator will come before the Pressure Regulator. This is significant when installing this system. Remember the statement above about “using your compressed air as efficiently as possible”? Inefficiencies come from two basic areas; pressure drop and overusing your compressed air. Pressure drop is based on velocity. The lower the velocity, the lower the pressure drop. If the Filter Separator is placed after the Pressure Regulator, the lower pressure will increase the velocity. Since air expands at lower pressure, the volume of air will increase. And since the area of the compressed air pipe is the same, the velocity will have to increase. For the second part with overusing compressed air, the Pressure Regulator will help. You want to use the lowest amount of air pressure as possible for the Super Air Knife to “do the job”. The lower air pressure will use less compressed air in your operation.
EXAIR products are engineered to be safe, efficient, and effective in your compressed air system. If you need help to place them in your P&ID diagrams, an Application Engineer can help you. It is important to have the pneumatic devices in the proper place, and if you want to efficiently use your compressed air, you can use EXAIR products for your blow-off devices.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb
