EXAIR Blog
When facility managers and corporate sustainability directors map out strategies to hit net-zero targets, the conversation usually turns quickly to high-ticket items: solar installations, HVAC overhauls, or fleet electrification. However, there’s an immediate, high-impact opportunity… More
EXAIR’s VariBlast Safety Air Guns provide a significant advancement in handheld blow off technology by effectively addressing the hazardous “all-or-nothing” airflow characteristic of conventional air blow guns. This innovative series combines precise, adjustable force control… More
When a piece of equipment goes down, the cost isn’t limited to the replacement part. Production stops. Employees wait. Maintenance gets pulled away from other projects. Orders can fall behind. Scrap and quality issues can… More
Have you just glanced around a manufacturing plant? You usually always see either the “curly” yellow hose or a red rubber hose with an air gun attached to it. They hang at work stations, machines, packaging areas, and even in obscure places. The reason that I bring this up is for safety reasons.
Recently we had a medium-sized manufacturing plant that was audited by OSHA. One of the first violations that OSHA found was with their compressed air guns with the typical brass pipe with the hole going through the side (one of the most typical types of nozzle). It violated code 29 CFR 1910.65(a) for maximum allowable noise exposure. The company had to make a choice to either purchase hearing protection for the operators or to find an alternative product. They contacted us because we could reduce their noise level. I suggested a Super Air Nozzle, model 1100, for their application. When they attached our Super Air Nozzle to their air gun, they quickly heard the difference between the noise levels. With the added benefits of good quality, high force, and meeting all the safety requirements, they decided to purchase the nozzles with our Safety Air Guns. They ordered 90 pieces of our Soft Grip Safety Air Gun with Chip Shield, model 1210-CS. This took care of the OSHA violation, and the operators were very happy with the product.
Another company was using compressed air with a ¼ turn valve attached to a 36” (91 cm) copper tubing. They used this device to reach into areas to blow off chips. The Safety Compliance Officer was familiar with dead-end pressure (OSHA 29CFR 1910.242(b)). It states that compressed air can enter the blood stream through the skin at pressures above 30 psig (2 bar). To keep his workers safe, he mandated a maximum pressure of 30 psig (2 bar). This increased the cleanup time for an operator as the force was reduced greatly. The Safety Compliance Officer contacted us about our Safety Air Guns. I explained that with our nozzles, they are engineered to operate at higher pressures and still be below the dead-end pressure requirement of 30 psig (2 bar). With our design, it keeps the surface of your skin from blocking the air openings, unlike the copper tubing. They ordered 25 pieces of our Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun with a 36” (91 cm) extension and Chip Shield, model 1310-36-CS. The operators were happy with the durability of the gun and with the ability to increase the air pressure for faster cleaning. The Safety Compliance Officer was happy to meet the OSHA standard and to keep his workers safe.
EXAIR offers a variety of different types of nozzles and Safety Air Guns to meet the requirements of your applications. All of our nozzles are safe, quiet, and powerful. We offer them in different materials, from aluminum/zinc, stainless steel, and PEEK. They are designed to entrain ambient air to save compressed air and money. As a note, an air gun is only as good as the nozzle it is using. Many air guns come with a very inexpensive brand of nozzle. They are typically very loud and very inefficient. I always like to use the analogy of a paint sprayer. No matter how good the spray gun is, if you have a poor nozzle, you will end up with many flaws in your paint. The same can be said with compressed air guns.
To keep your company compliant and safe, you can always contact an Application Engineer to help pick the correct product for you. From now until the end of September 2026, with qualified purchases, EXAIR will be giving away a model 6013SS Stainless Steel Air Jet, a $185.00 value, with a purchase of our Safety Air Guns, including the VariBlast Precision, VariBlast Compact, Soft Grip, Heavy Duty, and TurboBlast Safety Air Guns. We are promoting the importance of safety in the workplaces.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb
Walk onto almost any factory floor, and you will hear a familiar, high-pitched hiss. Compressed air blow offs are essential for clearing chips, drying parts, and moving materials. However, standard open pipes, copper tubes, and cheap commercial air guns create an incredibly loud, turbulent environment.
If your facility is looking to lower its decibel levels, improve operator safety, and slash energy bills, the solution lies in upgrading to an engineered system like EXAIR Safety Air Guns.
Traditional blow offs—such as a crimped copper pipe or a basic thumb trigger gun—rely on forcing raw compressed air through a large, unrestricted opening. This design creates severe air shear and chaotic turbulence as the fast-moving air slams into the stagnant ambient air.
This turbulence results in two major consequences:
EXAIR Safety Air Guns solve the noise problem by replacing this chaotic turbulence with engineered, laminar airflow. Instead of dumping raw compressed air directly into the environment, our guns utilize our specialized Super Air Nozzles. These nozzles eject a small amount of compressed air through a series of precise, engineered slots. This primary airstream creates a powerful vacuum effect that entrains large volumes of the surrounding ambient air.
The entrained ambient air forms a protective boundary layer that cushions the high-velocity core stream. By smoothing out the air shear, the noise level drops dramatically—often down to a whisper-quiet 68 to 82 dBA, well below OSHA’s strict 90 dBA threshold.
To put this into perspective, a decibel scale is logarithmic, meaning every 10 dBA increase represents a perceived doubling of loudness.
In a recent industrial case study, written about here on our blog, a manufacturing plant switched their open-ended blow off guns to the EXAIR Model 1250-12 Safety Air Gun. The results were immediate:
By making the switch, the factory successfully protected its workers’ hearing and significantly reduced its energy footprint.
In addition to reducing noise, upgrading to engineered guns provides total compliance with multiple other safety regulations:
Investing in engineered compressed air tools is a straightforward way to eliminate industrial noise pollution, protect your team, and improve your bottom line. If you would like to discuss how an engineered safety air gun from EXAIR can make a difference in your facility, then give me a call!
Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer
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Twitter: @EXAIR_AW
When dealing with industrial additive manufacturing, precision is everything. Engineers routinely push the boundaries of 3D printing by utilizing high-performance, flexible polymers like TPU or specialized thin-walled blends. However, these advanced materials come with a strict environmental cost: they require rapid, precise cooling the moment they leave the heated nozzle to instantly lock their geometric shape.
If your facility struggles with summer temperature spikes, relying on standard equipment fans can lead to costly print failures. Here is how one facility eliminated the headache of ambient heat creep using simple, compressed-air technology.
The Challenge: The Summer Meltdown in Advanced Prototyping
An engineering team was tasked with printing a batch of intricate components using a heat-sensitive, flexible polymer. The project required tight tolerances and flawless execution on complex overhangs.
The challenge arose during the peak of summer. The main facility floor was averaging 88°F (31°C), and the ambient temperature inside the unconditioned additive manufacturing lab hovered right around 85°F.
The Point of Failure
The 3D printer’s stock, built-in plastic cooling fans were running at maximum capacity. However, because these fans rely entirely on drawing in the hot, humid ambient room air, they simply could not lower the polymer’s temperature fast enough.
During an extended 14-hour print cycle, disaster struck. On the fine overhangs and delicate “bridge” segments of the prototype, the hot plastic began to droop and sag before it could solidify. The next morning, operators found a pile of warped, unusable plastic “spaghetti”—resulting in wasted specialty filament and a missed production deadline.
The Flawed Traditional Fixes
The engineering team considered several traditional fixes, but each introduced new operational bottlenecks:
The Solution: EXAIR Adjustable Spot Cooler
The team decided to pivot and repurpose an EXAIR Adjustable Spot Cooler from the shop floor.
Using the unit’s heavy-duty swivel magnetic base, they snapped the cooler directly onto the metal frame of the 3D printer enclosure. They routed the flexible cold air hose through a side access panel and directed it precisely at the print area just below the moving nozzle.
Instead of blowing ambient 85°F room air onto the build, the operators were able to dial in a crisp, dry stream of 20°F (-7°C) air to perfectly freeze the plastic layer by layer.
What Makes the Spot Cooler Truly “Adjustable”?
While standard industrial vortex tubes require a screwdriver to manually adjust the internal “cold fraction” valve, the EXAIR Adjustable Spot Cooler is specifically designed for rapid, on-the-fly customization via two mechanical layers of adjustability:
The Result
By fine-tuning the knob to a steady 20°F, the sub-freezing air instantly solidified the heat-sensitive polymer layers the millisecond they were extruded. This completely eliminated the drooping on complex overhangs and bridges.
Because the Spot Cooler utilizes EXAIR Vortex Tube technology, it features no moving parts, uses no electricity, and requires no chemical refrigerants. It ran continuously and reliably for the remainder of the 14-hour print cycle. The resulting parts were geometrically perfect and structurally sound, prompting the facility to permanently outfit their advanced printing workstations with dedicated Spot Coolers.
Why Vortex Tubes Outperform Electric Fans in Additive Manufacturing
To understand why this solution works so well, it helps to look at the physics of how heat is transferred during the print process:
A standard electric fan can only cool an object down to the temperature of the room it is in. When the room is hot, the fan is just moving hot air.
Conversely, an EXAIR Spot Cooler converts a standard supply of compressed air into two streams — one hot and one cold. The cold stream is dropped dramatically below ambient levels and focused through a flexible hose. This extreme temperature differential causes rapid heat transfer, freezing the plastic in place before gravity can warp it. Furthermore, because the air is completely dry, it introduces zero moisture or condensation onto the print bed, protecting the material integrity of hygroscopic polymers.
Take Control of Your Production Environment
Don’t let seasonal facility temperatures dictate the quality of your manufacturing output. Whether you are cooling molded plastics, machining metals, or perfecting high-tolerance 3D prints, EXAIR has a zero-maintenance spot cooling solution tailored to your layout.
If you are ready to eliminate warping, heat creep, and downtime in your facility, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer today to find the perfect system for your application.
Neal Raker, Application Engineering Manager
Safety in the workplace is of paramount importance, and it is widely recognized that annual safety training is a common practice among organizations. A fundamental message from these training sessions is that safety is a collective responsibility, not limited to a select few. At EXAIR, we prioritize safety in all aspects of our operations. Our product line, particularly our Safety Air Guns, exemplifies this commitment, as they are engineered with safety considerations at the forefront. This emphasis on safety is critical, especially given the potential health hazards associated with the improper use of compressed air.
In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for enforcing regulations that promote safe and healthy working conditions. This agency possesses the power to levy significant fines for any infractions. Among the frequent violations related to compressed air are those concerning air guns and blow-off devices, specifically detailed in 29CFR 1910.242(b), which addresses dead-end pressure and chip shielding, as well as 29CFR 1910.95(a), which pertains to permissible noise exposure levels.
The regulation 29CFR 1910.242(b) addresses the use of hand-held tools, particularly emphasizing that blow-off devices must not operate at pressures exceeding 30 PSIG when there is a risk of compressed air becoming dead-ended. In situations where there is no escape route for the air, it poses a serious risk of penetrating the skin and causing an air embolism. A potential remedy is to drill a hole to create an alternative escape route. However, this solution may introduce additional safety hazards, which will be discussed later. EXAIR’s air nozzles are engineered with fins that facilitate safe air escape, thereby preventing skin blockage. Consequently, users can operate the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles at pressures exceeding 30 PSIG with confidence.
The regulation 29CFR 1910.95(a) specifies the permissible sound levels for safe human exposure, emphasizing that extended exposure to elevated noise can result in irreversible hearing loss. However, the cross-drilled nozzle falls short in this regard, as it generates significant noise due to turbulent airflow, despite being suitable for dead-end pressure applications. In contrast, EXAIR’s nozzles are engineered to incorporate ambient air, resulting in a significantly quieter laminar flow. For example, the Model 1210 Safety Air Gun, equipped with the Model 1100 Nozzle, operates at a sound level of only 74dBA, which is comfortably below the noise exposure threshold for an eight-hour work shift.
If you have any inquiries about compressed air safety, or any EXAIR products, please feel free to contact us.
Jason Kirby
Application Engineer
Email: jasonkirby@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jk
