Month: February 2011

How Does Heat Affect Electronics?

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How does heat affect electronics? The theoretical explanation is that semiconductor devices work by means of the movement of charge carriers (electrons and holes). The key is controlling their movement through intrinsic regions (and insulators) that have different electrical properties. However, at sufficiently high temperatures, the electrical difference between the regions disappears and the p-n junction becomes ineffective in controlling carrier movement. So you’ve lost the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor.

If you understood all that gobbledygook good for you. But for those of us that are charged with keeping production lines up and running, all we need to now is that heat is our enemy. With more and more electronics being implemented for process control, heat issues top the list of our priorities. We get creative in our battle against heat. As pictured to the right it is common to open the panel doors and blow air with a floor fan. This poses a safety issue and blows contaminants onto the circuit boards.

For most of the nation up to their knees in snow, summer heat is not foremost in our minds. But now is the time to explore EXAIR’s solution to electronics cooling. Using just compressed air, with our vortex technology we generate cool purging air. These units fit in the palm of your hand and can generate up to 5600 btu/hr. With no moving parts they are virtually maintenance free and operate indefinitely.

Call one of our application engineers who will assist you in sizing up your panel cooling requirements.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer

Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: www.exair.com 
Twitter: www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Retrofit a Brand New Machine? No Problem!

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Have you ever had a brand new machine or line that you built or just got installed into your facility only to find out you need an extra blow off, cooling, or vacuum operation. Not to mention, most of the time it would benefit for this additional process to be intermittently controlled to provide an on demand type situation. I recently helped a customer that had this exact scenario.  He was the machine builder and once the machine was installed at the customer’s, they discovered some of the product processes his machine depended on had changed.  This left his machine to pick up the slack where others had left off. Rather than trying to push blame around to other pieces of equipment he told the customer that the problems will be solved.  That’s when he called us.  You see, this customer had used our products before in numerous other applications.  His customized machinery was used in a wide variety of process so he had an existing knowledge of our vast product offerings.

The machine he was working on was supposed to be a final process of activating a shrink film that is applied to a part then pass the part on to a transfer line for bulk packaging.  What he didn’t know is the shrink wrap size originally quoted and tested on prototypes had changed.  So now, instead of having a nice tight shrink wrap on the part, it now had excess on three sides that was not desired by the customer.  The excess wrap would tend to cause problems when trying to unpack these bulk products. When this was discovered the customer had an operator physically fold each tail while it is still in a melted state in order to have a tightly packed product and aesthetically pleasing package.  This is not only tying an operator up which is costing money but it is also increasing their cycle time and not to mention the operators didn’t like handling hot shrink wrap.

Once we discussed the products shape and size we determined the best solution is going to be use a combination of Super Air Knives, and 2″ Super Air Nozzles.  The way the product would come through the tunnel there would be a tail on both sides of the conveyor, then a final tail the full width of the product on the trailing edge.  The product was for all intents and purposes a rectangle with a curve to it.  To combat the tails that are on the side I recommended to use a 2″ Super Air Nozzle combined with our 1/4″ Swivel Fitting to permit the angle of air to be adjusted. The 2″ Super Air Nozzle would be mounted below the level of the conveyor and angled up and to the center of the conveyor.   The product will be passed through this air stream and the tail will be folded on each side as it passes the nozzle.   This will provide enough air to get the shrink wrap folded on top of the product and take care of both sides.  Then, the only piece remaining was the trailing edge tail.   The nozzles on the side would not take care of this so I recommended to mount two Super Air Knives below the surface of the conveyor in between the heat tunnel conveyor and the product transfer conveyor.  The two conveyors had a 2″ gap which is more than enough for the air stream from two Super Air Knives.  The reason we used two separate knives is, the product was the width of the product would require a 60″ Super Air Knife to cover the full width.  However because of the curve in the product there was only 15″ on each side of the product that had a tail.   This meant 2 separate knives that would blow up from below the product and toward the travel of the conveyor.   This would permit the shrink wrap to be pushed up initially then forced over onto itself  as it proceeded down the transfer line.  This would leave the product in a nice tightly packed shrink wrap with no tails to get caught up when bulk packed.

Now that we had the method, the next step was to ensure we only used the compressed air when needed.  There was no point in having the nozzles and Air Knives blow constantly, as the product was intermittently placed on the conveyor.  Because this was an existing machine and the blow off was being retrofitted into the existing system I recommended to use an Electronic Flow Control which would sense the windshield and trigger an On Timer.  This would then provide the correct length of time for the product to not only pass the sensor but also pass the gap in the conveyors by several inches to insure it was fully processed.   We were able to use one EFC to power all 4 products to optimize this newly designed system.

All together by calling us the customer not only solved his customers issues but also made up for other machines shortcomings.   Because our products were able to fit into the areas needed along with the EFC’s flexibility to be mounted and installed on an existing system the customer had the exact finished product they had hoped for.   Not only was our customer pleased with the level of service we offered but was extremely pleased that we had such quick turn around time for help and shipping of the products.   This was further expressed by his customer who was extremely content with his new machine and is now discussing expansion to yet another line.

If you have ever encountered a situation like this feel free to give us a call.   We’ll do our best to help you and get you or your customer taken care of.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_BF

Everybody Makes Mistakes, Just Some More Than Others

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It was what my brother always told me when I made a mistake.  Everybody does it, but some do it more often (or in more spectacular fashion) than others.  And although you won’t find it written anywhere, one of the main functions written in your job description is ‘keep mistakes from happening.’ 

The good thing about mistakes is that we don’t have to personally make them to learn from them.  As an engineer, I always think of the (in)famous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. 

Few engineers had heard of resonant frequency, let alone given it serious thought prior to Nov 7, 1940.  And had they worried incessantly about it, chances are no bridge would have ever been built there, period.  But now I dare say there’s not a civil or aerospace engineer out there who doesn’t look at this critical factor when creating a new design.  It’s interesting to note that there is still some debate as to whether forced resonance was the real cause for the collapse.  You can read more here. 

Regardless the cause, I still remember watching this filmstrip (yes, filmstrip) in high school and college level physics courses.  It has always fascinated me and served as a stark reminder of the responsibilities of the engineering world at large.  But here’s the thing.  The old cliché is true.  We all DO make mistakes.  Whether it’s in a design, accounting, customer service, wherever.  While no man will every completely avoid making mistakes in his life, we should be well-rounded enough to try to consider factors outside the normal mode of operation that can affect our desired outcome.

So a mistake has occurred.  Obviously we want to learn from it and avoid making it (or one like it) again.  Good.  Now what?  There’s a corollary to that unwritten job function that goes like this ‘When you do make a mistake, correct it quickly AND with complete disclosure.’  It’s that latter part that makes us squirm in our seats.  Having to tell the boss, the customer and possibly the world that something you did (or didn’t) do was going to cost the company time, money and perhaps most importantly, respect.

Whatever you do, DON’T try to skip this step.  I have tried.  It ends poorly.  GM, Ford, Toyota have all tried.  I don’t think I need to tell you how it ended (is ending) for them. What might seem like a ‘little’ problem and what might seem like ‘well intentioned efforts’ to minimize damage can wind up destroying your reputation.  Quite frankly, anything less than complete disclosure is a lie.  You can debate this point if you like, but I’m betting your customer would agree with me.

It’s been said that no man is an island (sorry, yet another cliché) and this is particularly true when a mistake we made starts to affect others.  Sometimes the hardest thing is sucking it up and asking for a little help.  It’s tough, but we all need a little help now and again, even if it’s just emotional support and advice.

In summary:

Don’t be afraid to explore new things.

Try to avoid, but don’t be afraid to make, mistakes.

When you mess up, fess up.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

And when all is said and done, chances are very good you’ll get a chance to do it all again.

Dan Preston
Engineer
DanPreston@exair.com

There is an App for That

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The rising popularity of smartphones has given birth to an industry called apps or applications to be used on your phone. There are over 10,000 applications available ranging from productivity tools to simple games.

What makes my job as an application engineer for EXAIR so interesting is that our compressed air products are implemented in applications over a broad range of industries; from medical to mining.

Then there is the stimulus of those “off the wall” applications like the golf caddy that needed a high-powered blow gun to clean golf shoes without having to use a wet bath that soaked the shoes. The special effects industry is particularly fun, as these guys really get creative with our products. The animators for an amusement part wanted a powerful blast of air to come out of a gorilla mannequin hovering over the guests. They were able to do that using one of our air amplifiers nestled back inside the mouth of the mannequin.

So what’s your app (application)? Call us for a solution. 1-800-903-9247

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer

Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: www.exair.com 
Twitter: www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair