Month: July 2009

Cold Gun Eliminates Bottleneck in Press-fitting Application

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

A well known manufacturer of household appliance products contacted me recently with a cooling problem. Customer had a small, aluminum pulley that was heated and subsequently had a shaft pressed into it. The pulley weighed .07 lbs.  After the shaft press, the customer needed to cool from 500F down to 110F in 15 seconds or less. Current time was at 45 seconds with normal, compressed air exiting smashed pipe.

Customer implemented the Model 5330 High Power Cold Gun and was able to reduce cooling time to 15 seconds, realizing a 2/3 gain in time for the application.

Spot heating appliances using either gas or induction type heaters are quite common in industry. Spot Cooling options are extremely limited though. So, the High Power Cold Gun provides one solution for this kind of cooling application.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

Line Vac vs Air Amplifier

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Which one should you use?  That depends on your application.  At first glance they seem to operate in a similar manner.  But when it comes down to it, one really is better suited than the other, depending on the task it is being asked to perform.

I spoke to a customer last week who was currently using a 1″ Line Vac to transfer pieces of very small OD water drip tubing.  He was looking for a way to increase the efficiency of his application, namely decreasing his air consumption while still achieving the same transfer results.  His suggestion was to move to an Air Amplifier of similar size, since it has higher air amplification than a similarly sized Line Vac.  He mistakenly took this to also imply higher velocity, which is not actually correct. 

For moving a material that has any considerable mass to it, i.e. anything heavier than air or steam, a Line Vac is nearly always the best option.  While a Line Vac does have a much smaller air amplification ratio than an Air Amplifier, it also has a much higher vacuum level.  Thus, it is better able to pull solid materials through than an Air Amplifier would be.  It can lift the weight and transfer it over the required distance using a ring of directed nozzles to push the material through. 

An Air Amplifier is much better at moving large volumes of air in a short time frame.  It is able to quickly entrain the surrounding air and move it through the unit away from the vacuum area.  While it is able to move a large volume of air, it would not have the same capacity if moving a material of any considerable mass.  It creates its vacuum by using a Coanda profile on the ID of the unit.  The Coanda profile helps to accelerate the inlet compressed air which enters the unit through a small ring nozzle.  This acceleration is what entrains the ambient air from the rear of the unit, and the combined airflow is then directed towards the outlet of the unit. 

Based on the above comaprison, for this customer’s particular request, I suggested he stay with a Line Vac and just move to a smaller size.  The small tubing would still fit very well through the ID of a 1/2″ unit, so I recommended a model 6079 Stainless Steel model.  This will cut his air consumption approx in half, yet still easily be able to convey the light tubing material over the required distance. 

Emily Mortimer
Application Engineer
emilymortimer@exair.com

The Speed of Industry

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

A nuclear engineer I spoke with this morning said he graduated in 1966 and was obsolete in 1971, the technology in that industry was developing so fast that his knowledge was no longer useful. It seems as time goes on industry moves faster every day.

The compressed air industry is no exception, it is moving forward quickly with efficient technologies and safer products. A sharper focus on energy savings across the world naturally affects the industry. The globalization of industry expands markets. And the electronic age effects how products find their way into those markets.

At EXAIR we have embraced the speed at which things change. We have always had air nozzles but in 2002 EXAIR began development of our Super Air Nozzle line which greatly increased efficiency and lowered noise levels. We introduced the line with one model number 1100, and today offer no less than 38 models of Super Air Nozzles with similar characteristics. Since 2005 we have added over 1000 new model numbers.

In 2007 we added a completely new product line of Optimization Products, to keep up with the demand for compressed air efficiency. In 2008 another new product line was introduced, our E-Vac vacuum generators and we have added a new adjustable vacuum generator earlier this year. These new product lines increase our market and give EXAIR the ability to solve more problems for customers.

It seems like the quickest changes come from the way we try to communicate with customers, this blog is a good example and RSS feeds. We have posted videosof many products online. And my e-mail signature now has our Twitter link.

It’s a fast paced world out there. EXAIR is fully staffed and we have the knowledge to help you stay up to speed whether by saving some compressed air in your plant or helping a plant operation work better and/or faster or getting you some information quickly. Our Intelligent Compressed Air products are keeping pace with the speed of industry.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Scum Sucker

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One of my customers needed a way to remove foam scum off the surface of a liquid. He reclaims used paper. Paper scrap is reprocessed by first being introduced into a chemical solution and then made into a slurry called pulp. The pulp is passed through screens to remove bits of plastic, etc. The next process is called de-inking, to remove printing and glue. A surfactant is mixed into the pulp to loosen the inks and glues from the pulp. Then air is bubbled up to float them to the top. What this customer needed is a way to vacuum off the foam created on the surface.

I suggested using a 4″ air amplifier connected to a vacuum hood.  The floating material was pushed towards the hood with a skimmer board and easily vacuumed away.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com