Wherever you go, humidity – and its effects – are an inescapable fact of life. Low humidity areas (I’m looking at you, American Southwest) make for a “dry heat” in the summer that many prefer… More
Video Blog: How To Remove, or Move, A Digital Flowmeter By Using Block-off Rings
If you need to remove (or move) a Digital Flowmeter, EXAIR has Block-off Rings that are used to safely cover & seal the holes that were drilled in the pipe for installation. Here’s how they work:
If you’ve got any questions about Block-off Rings, Digital Flowmeters, or would like to find out more about EXAIR Corporation can help you get the most out of your compressed air system, give me a call.
Russ Bowman, CCASS
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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EasySwitch Hepa Wet-Dry Vac Wins a Platinum 2022 Industrial Hygiene Award
And the winning streak continues. EXAIR wins another award!!! It’s not bronze, silver, or gold, it’s Platinum!! WOW!! How good does this product have to be to win Platinum? To put this in perspective we can look at several awards that we are more familiar with. The Olympics? Well, these athletes are only good enough to win a Gold Medal. In the music world there are Gold and Platinum records. In the music industry Platinum is twice as good as Gold. I believe it’s fair to say that a Platinum award describes a product that far exceeds the expectations of the market. That is just what our EasySwitch Hepa Wet-Dry Vac does.
This isn’t your dad’s wet-dry vac that was stacked away in the garage and only used as a last resort. This is a serious industrial vacuum system that will absolutely blow you away, and keep your facility clean. Every building that runs compressed air should have one. This is unquestionably the best wet-dry vac on the market today. Again – PLATINUM. But what makes it so amazing? I’m glad you asked.
1st off, you can switch this from wet to dry in less than 10 seconds. Oh and we did mention HEPA – yes HEPA filtration on the dry side. You simply disconnect the 1 latch on the filter hatch flip it open and either insert (for dry) or remove (for wet) the filter. The filters are available in in standard or HEPA.
2nd – this vacuum gives you a high performance using minimal air.
3rd – it is quiet – only 79 dBA at 80 psi. This is well below the OSHA noise requirements.
I could go on about how this is maintenance free, with no shock concerns (electricity free), spill free with auto safety shutoff, no motors to clog or wear out and that it can operate continoulsy for as long as you want it to, but I’d like to move on and discuss some of the applications.
The EasySwitch is a perfect solution for coolant, shavings, chips, floor cleanup, drains, absorbents, and mold and allergen removal, just to mention a few.
Please give us a call today to discuss or order our Platinum Award winning EasySwitch Hepa Wet-Dry vacuum.
Application Engineer
Brian Wages
Fluid Mechanics – Boundary Layer
Fluid mechanics is the field that studies the properties of fluids in various states. Fluid dynamics studies the forces on a liquid or a gas during motion. Osborne Reynolds, an Irish innovator, popularized this dynamic with a dimensionless number, Re. This number determines the state in which the fluid is moving; laminar, transitional, or turbulent. For compressed air, a value of Re < 2300 will indicate a laminar air flow while the value of Re > 4000 will be in the range of turbulent flow. Equation 1 below shows the relationship between the inertial forces of the fluid as compared to the viscous forces.
Equation 1:
Re = V * Dh / u
Re – Reynolds Number (no dimensions)
V – Velocity (feet/sec or meters/sec)
Dh – hydraulic diameter (feet or meters)
u – Kinematic Viscosity (feet^2/sec or meter^2/sec)
To dive deeper into this, we can examine the boundary layer. The boundary layer is the area that is near the surface of the object. This could refer to a wing on an airplane or a blade in a turbine. In this blog, I will target the boundary layer inside pipes, tubes, and hoses that are used to transport fluids. The profile across the area (reference diagram below) is a velocity gradient. The boundary layer is the distance from the wall or surface to 99% of the maximum velocity of the fluid stream. At the surface, the velocity of the fluid is zero because the fluid is in a “no slip” condition. As we move away from the wall, the velocity starts to increase. The boundary layer thickness measures that area where the velocity is not uniform. If you reach 99% of the maximum velocity very close to the wall of the pipe, the air flow is turbulent. If the boundary layer reaches the radius of the pipe, then the velocity is fully developed, or laminar. Mathematically, laminar flow equations can be calculated, but turbulent flows require theories and experimental data to determine.
As an analogy, imagine an expressway as the velocity profile, and the on-ramp as the boundary layer. If the on-ramp is long and smooth, a car can reach the speed of traffic and merge without disrupting the flow. This would be considered Laminar Flow. If the on-ramp is curved but short, the car has to merge into traffic at a much slower speed. This will disrupt the flow of some of the traffic. I would consider this as the transitional range. Now imagine an on-ramp to be very short and perpendicular to the expressway. As the car goes to merge into traffic, it will cause chaos and accidents. This is what I would consider to be turbulent flow.
In a compressed air system, similar things happen within the piping scheme. Valves, tees, elbows, pipe reducers, filters, etc. are common items that will disrupt the flow. Let’s look at a scenario with the EXAIR Digital Flowmeters. In the instruction manual, we require the flow meter to be placed 30 pipe diameters from any disruptions. The reason is to get a laminar air flow for accurate flow measurements. In order to get laminar flow, we need the boundary layer thickness to reach the radius of the pipe.
Why is this important to know? In many compressed air applications, the laminar region is the best flow to generate a strong force; efficiently and quietly. Allowing the compressed air to have a more uniform boundary layer will optimize your compressed air system. And for the Digital Flowmeter, it helps to measure the flow accurately and consistently. If you would like to discuss further how to reduce “traffic jams” in your process, an EXAIR Application Engineer will be happy to help you.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb
Photo: Smoke by Skitterphoto. Pixabay license
More And More Award Winning Products From EXAIR
As you might expect, a LOT of things have changed at EXAIR Corporation since 1983. Most of our current senior management had yet to graduate high school, and a fair number of current employees had yet to BE BORN. According to our computer system (another BIG change since 1983), our first ten customers were here in southwest Ohio (#11 was in Michigan), and now, we sell direct across the US & Canada, and our worldwide distributor network offers representation on six continents. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is our founder’s vision of manufacturing quiet, safe, & efficient compressed air products for process improvement in just about any industry that uses compressed air. And THAT, dear reader, continues to gain high profile attention. The photo above shows the seven awards that our products have recently won, which were announced in 2021 or early 2022. Here’s a rundown:
Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Fluid Handling) GOLD AWARD:
1/2 NPT No Drip External Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles
The 1/2 NPT models are the latest addition to our newest product line. The External Mix version offers the highest liquid flow rate, and largest pattern coverage. Among the applications where they’ve excelled so far are:
- Snack food provider – applying flavoring to bulk snack materials.
- Commercial bakery – spraying cooking oil onto pans used in a conveyor oven.
- Sporting goods manufacturer – applying adhesive to the tops of skateboard decks to glue the grip tape on.
Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Material Handling Systems) GOLD AWARD:
2-1/2 NPT 303SS Threaded Line Vac™
For bulk material conveyance, it really doesn’t get any simpler than EXAIR Air Operated Conveyors. Stainless Steel models are especially popular when the environment – or the product – is corrosive, or hot…they’re good to 400F (204C), and can even be modified with High Temperature components for exposure up to 900F (482C). The Threaded versions have been successfully used to:
- Recycle sprinkles applied to wafers into a return hopper in a candy production facility.
- Replacing an auger conveyor to allow for homogenous mixing of grains & supplements in feed stock at an agricultural mill.
- Providing a low cost solution to convey product into a hopper at a grain processing plant.
Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Maintenance Tools & Equipment) SILVER AWARD
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Industrial Hygiene-Dust Control) WINNER
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Health & Safety/Cleanup) PLATINUM
EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac
Like our Spray Nozzles product line, our Industrial Housekeeping Products line has also grown considerably over the years. The Deep Hole Vac-u-Gun and Heavy Duty HEPA Vac were real game changers when they came along, and the EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac Systems are likewise making an impact. Switching from wet to dry operation is, as advertised in the name itself, INCREDIBLY easy. Among our satisfied customers are:
- The owner of a woodworking shop called to order a Heavy Duty HEPA Vac for critical dust containment during cleanup, but “switched” to a Model 6103 55 Gallon HEPA EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac System for the added ability to rapidly empty the water from their dust collector system.
- A lumber yard uses an empty drum with a Model 6201 55 Gallon Deluxe EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac System for general cleanup of sawdust & chips, and also to suction wastewater from various pits & sumps, in and around their facility.
- A fastener manufacturer replaced an electric wet-dry vacuum with a Model 6301 55 Gallon Premium EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac System for maintenance & spill cleanup in & around their washers, and for just about everything else they used the electric vacs for.
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Lab Safety) WINNER
Intellistat® Ion Air Gun™
The newest innovation in a long line of EXAIR static elimination solutions, the Model 8500 Intellistat® Ion Air Gun is made for laboratories, clean rooms, medical & electronic applications, and carries an ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean room use. Because of their rapid decay rates and lightweight construction, they’re used in a diverse range of applications and areas, including:
- A supplier of fiberoptic parts uses an Intellistat® to remove dust and static charge from product prior to packaging.
- A medical device manufacturer has one in a Class 7 clean room for silicone parts cleanliness.
- A nutritional supplements maker uses their Intellistat® to remove static charge & powder residue from the tops of plastic bags before sealing them. The excess/residual powder causes them not to seal correctly.
Machine Design 2021 Big Idea! (Electrical Components) BRONZE AWARD
Gen4® Static Eliminator Power Supply
EXAIR Static Eliminators produce ionized air via a Corona discharge, which requires high voltage, low current electricity. The Gen4® Static Eliminator Products feature armored & shielded cables with an internal ground, for safety and reliability. The ground path is completed through the cable and the Power Supply port, eliminating the need for an external ground connection. Faults in external ground connections result in the majority of the problems with those devices, so the internal ground is a “Big Idea!” indeed. The Gen4® Static Eliminator Power Supplies are switchable for 115VAC or 230VAC voltages, and are offered in 2, or 4 outlet designs, which can power any 2, or 4 EXAIR Static Eliminator Products. Like most EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products, they’re used for a wide range of applications, in a wide range of industries:
- Operators at a building products manufacturer have to handle styrene sheets on a constant basis. They use Model 8493 Gen4® Ion Air Guns at each station to prevent nuisance shocks, and to blow away any debris prior to printing & handling.
- A major supplier of machinery to the glass industry incorporates Model 8192 Gen4® Ion Air Cannons to clean the glass being produced by the machine.
- A custom wood cabinet maker uses Model 112260PKI 60″ Gen4® Super Ion Air Knives (with Plumbing Kits installed) to blow off the sawdust produced during cutting & routing of their panels.
If you’d like to find out more about these, or any of our other engineered compressed air products (we’re pretty proud of them all), give me a call. I can talk about them all day long…and sometimes I do!
Russ Bowman, CCASS
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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