Month: September 2009

Do it Your Way or Do it the EXAIR Way? Which Way is the Best Way? You Tell Us.

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

OK – let’s get this discussion going.

We see it every day;

Your way –  uses the open copper tubes bent into shape to point the air at your application. It is effective and quick. It gives you the opportunity to move on to the next fire to be put out and you no longer have to worry about it.
          Your Way Attributes:
                    1. Higher Air Flow
                    2. Higher Force
                    3. Costs less to purchase, costs more to operate

EXAIR way – Outfit those same copper tubes with an air nozzle which meets or exceeds OSHA requirements. It is effective and quick. It gives you the opportunity to move on to the next fire to be put out and you no longer have to worry about it.
          EXAIR Way Attributes:
                    1. Lower Air Flow, saves money
                    2. Lower noise Levels, increases safety
                    3. Costs more to purchase, costs less to operate

Leave us your comments, tell us the positives and negatives you perceive, bring up other details not mentioned above; Tweet and Re-Tweet so we can get a good dialogue going and share our experiences.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Plant Restoration

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I was contacted by an industrial painter that renovates old factory buildings for alternate uses. The first step is to remove decades of factory pollution from ceilings, pipes, etc.  He was looking to blow down with compressed air but wanted a more effective way than just a long open pipe. It is noisy and was cited for not being OSHA compliant.

I suggested the EXAIR Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun Model 1360-72. This has a forceful but efficient Super Air Nozzle attached to it with a 6 foot long extension.

Capture

The design feature of the Super Air Nozzle is to draw in surrounding air and add it to the air stream thus providing more volume of air for blow off.

The customer was excited about the performance and how much quieter it was. He could clean faster and eliminate the need for hearing protection while complying with the OSHA dead end pressure directive. 

Joe Panfalone
Applications Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com

Vortex Tube Keeps Test Module Cold

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

One of our customers operates a laboratory designed for testing mechanical properties of various kinds of materials. Their tests will usually require that the materials be cooled to zero Celsius during the test. For this, they utilize test “chambers” in which they control the temperature to the specified level.

The customer currently uses liquid CO2 to cool the material sample and the chamber, however that is quite expensive as some of the tests can be as many as 11 days in duration. So, they have been looking for a lesser expensive option for cooling, especially for the longer duration tests.

The customer has decided to use Model 3225 Vortex Tube to keep their test chambers cool instead of using liquid CO2. The vortex tube uses 25 SCFM to produce as much as 1700 Btu/hr of cooling power within the small test chambers. All of which are less than 1 cubic foot in size.

This allows for a high concentration of cooling power into a very small area. The customer can also use compressed air for the cooling purpose which is a much less expensive alternative to compressed gases such as liquid CO2.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

No More Spilled Pet Food

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Ever pick up a big bag of cat or dog food at your local pet store, only to notice a trickle of pieces spilling out the bottom due to a bad seal on the bag?  Speaking from experience, this does not make for a very satisfied customer.  I will most certainly put that bag back and grab a different one instead. 

Badly sealed food bags can lead to all sorts of problems.  These opened bags likely will not get purchased, resulting in wasted food and lost sales for the pet store.  If the bags are caught at the pet food packaging facility before being filled, they can lead to process downtime to remove the bad bags, as well as waste material due to scrapping the rejected bags.    If the bags are caught at the bag manufacturer, they most likely will need to be scrapped as well, because it is not always possible to re-seal a bag. 

More efficient cooling of the original hot melt used to seal the bags will eliminate most of these problems.  So, I readily recommended a 36″ Aluminum Super Air Knifeand 2pc of our Universal Air Knife Mounting System to to resolve the issue.  The mounting system will allow for precise positioning of the air knife.  The air knife itself will provide a uniform curtain of air across the entire width of the bag to ensure complete and even cooling. 

The installation of these products will lead to less reject bags being sent to the pet food facilities for filling and then on to the pet stores for you to purchase for your four-legged friends.

Emily Mortimer
Application Engineer
emilymortimer@exair.com