Month: October 2009

Eliminating Water Test and Carbon Footprint

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Customer makes air brake systems. They test the accumulator tanks under water for leaks. The next operation is painting and any traces of moisture have to be removed first. They do this by loading the tanks into an oven and baking the moisture off.

With the rising cost of energy and a push to reduce their carbon footprint, they wanted to eliminate the bake-off oven. I suggested using a Model 9061 Ultrasonic Leak Detector instead of a water bath. This instrument was able to find leaks faster without the use of water and eliminated the oven operation.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com

Are you looking for a compressed air flow meter?

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

If you are looking for a good way to begin measuring flow of compressed air at various points within your compressed air system, we have a very easy solution to enable you to implement this kind of measurement.

In this age of energy savings, compressed air is a utility that is looked at with great scrutiny because it is expensive to produce. And to “look” at it correctly, you need to have the right tool. And EXAIR has that tool which is easy to install and use.

We have what we call the Digital Flow Meter which is available in two stock sizes for 1 inch and 2 inch Schedule 40 steel pipe. Other sizes are available by special order with approximately a 5 – 7 day lead time.

The Digital Flow Meter has a simple display that shows you an actual Standard Cubic Feet per Minute value that does not have to be corrected to give you meaningful data. The Digital Flow Meter uses a simple 18VDC, plug-in, power supply for its power. The way we package this meter is to be used as a stand-alone device, however it does have a pulse output and a milliamp output to allow for connection to external data gathering devices.

The above is a quick overview of the meter features. If you are in the market for something that can provide you with such feedback about your compressor system to track leakage, or maybe to help justify another improvement made downstream of the meter (like installation of an Air Knife or nozzles), then this is a quick and easy product to use.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

Line Vac Conveys Paper Chads

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Remember the old dot matrix style printers?  And the paper they used, with the holes punched down each side?  I was recently contacted by a label making company who was actually doing the punching to make this style paper.  Needless to say, all those little paper chads can make quite a mess.

So, he was looking for a way to grab the chads as they are punched and convey them to a collection drum.  The conveying distance was not far, and of course the paper chads are a very lightweight material.  So, a rather small unit would do the trick.  I recommended our 1.5″ Aluminum Line Vac for the job.   It will have more than enough conveying capacity to get all the chads to the drum. 

Because the Line Vac typically conveys material at a rather high velocity, this customer decided to operate the unit at a pressure much lower than we typically recommend.  He didnt want to clean up one mess, only to create another on the outlet end.  So, he also added a screen lid to the drum to help contain the chads as they are deposited, while still allowing the air to flow out to avoid creating a backpressure on the system. 

The installation of the Line Vac and screen drum lid collected almost all of the chads, leaving only a few strays to be cleaned up each day.

Emily Mortimer
Application Engineer
emilymortimer@exair.com

Caution, Helpful Solutions Provided

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

If you are thinking about contacting EXAIR be careful, you may end up with the following results:

1. Problem Solved – whether it is to eliminate an overheating electronic cabinet or eject defective parts from a conveyor, we can help. Our broad compressed air product line has provided solutions in sheet metal shops and medical manufacturers, the Hollywood film industry and the shrink film industry. If you are using compressed air you can most likely benefit from our products.

Earlier today I worked with a guy to eliminate his mist coolant on an OD grinder with our Cold Gun.

2. Safety Increased– We engineer our products to meet or exceed OSHA compressed air safety standards. Using our products can eliminate OSHA fines. Many operations still use open pipe or tube blow offs which violate an OSHA dead end pressure standard if over 30 PSIG. They also typically exceed noise threshold standards.

EXAIR recently outfitted a major automotive oil filter manufacturing plant who needed to reduce environmental noise levels in the plant. We outfitted 3/8″, 1/4″ and 3/16″ open copper tubes with our Super Air Nozzles.

3. Energy Savings – We manufacture the most efficient compressed Air Knives, Nozzles, Air Wipes and Air Amplifiers in the industry. One of our main objectives is to provide maximum efficiency problem solving products.

In the example above for the noise reduction project in the oil filter plant we also reduced air consumption enough to shut off a 50 Hp compressor. It was not the primary goal of the project but it could have been. Many of our customers contact us simply to save energy.

If you need a solution please contact EXAIR. Leave us a comment on the blog for everyone to see or contact me via e-mail. If EXAIR has already provided a solution for you, share it with others by leaving a comment on the blog.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com