Month: May 2012

Stop The Shaft!

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

When something is wrong with a piece of machinery, the prudent thing to do is to stop, find the problem, and fix it. If you’re on a naval warship, for instance, and you hear a rumbling sound in the Main Reduction Gears, the first thing you do (assuming there’s not a torpedo chasing you) is stop and lock the shaft.

To stop and lock the shaft on a Trident submarine, the Engineering Watch Supervisor goes to Shaft Alley, picks up a phone that’s located there for this very purpose, and directs the Throttleman (who lives in Maneuvering, a small room that’s about as far from Shaft Alley as you can get and still be in the Engineroom) to open & close the Forward & Back throttles until the shaft is stationary long enough to say “the shaft is stopped” three times…then, a mechanical operator pushes in the mechanism to lock the propulsion train.

Nobody stopped the shaft like my friend Curt. Most people did “play by play” – Curt did “color.” He knew every synonym for words like “creeping” and “crawling” that have ever been published in a thesaurus. “The shaft is edging forward…the shaft is slinking back…the shaft is inching forward EVER SO SLIGHTLY…barely…the shaft is stopped, the shaft is stopped, the shaft is stopped.”

Luckily, we never had to stop the shaft for any purpose other than training, but not every boat has been so fortunate, and the consequences can be serious:

In 1987, the Trident submarine USS Nevada suffered a reduction gear failure soon after a maintenance refit that was performed by a shipyard who was bidding on a contract to build Trident submarines. The cause was a faulty part that was replaced under warranty by the manufacturer. Regardless, the shipyard still didn’t get the contract.

Last year, sailors onboard USS Georgia, another Trident, heard a “Whump! Whump! Whump!” (that’s official technical jargon; I got it straight from the Navy Times) coming from their reduction gears. It appears that, instead of stopping and locking the shaft, they continued to operate for several days, at varying speeds, trying to diagnose the problem. The subsequent repairs cost over two million dollars, took the boat into the yards for three months, and caused them to miss a critical deployment in support of the NATO mission against Libya, which required their Tomahawk missile-launching capability. As a result, an officer and a senior enlisted man both lost their jobs, three sailors went to Captain’s Mast, and three more got letters in their Permanent Record.

Not all problems have such dire consequences, but it begs the question: what are you living with, because you think you can? I know of a company that found out that they were “living with” compressed air leaks, totaling 6.5 SCFM a while back. They used an Ultrasonic Leak Detector to find a total of 17 mostly very minor leaks. Now, 6.5 SCFM doesn’t sound like much, but if you do the math, it’s over a million cubic feet per year. I know this story is true, because the company was EXAIR.

Before you go on “living with” a problem that’s costing you lost compressed air, I encourage you to give us a call. Between our Ultrasonic Leak Detectors, Digital Flow Meters, and Efficiency Lab, we can help.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: http://www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

A Straight Forward Vortex Tube Cooling Application

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

As the title suggests, I wish to quickly visit a simple and effective cooling application with you. The customer builds custom test fixtures to test any electronic circuit board and components prior to final assembly of the board into whatever it will be used in. Their requirement is to cool an IC processor chip that would normally have a heat sink and a fan to cool them once fully assembled. During board level test the heat sink and fan are not there, so to keep it cool they want to use a Vortex Tube cooler. Physically, the test parts will range in size from 2.25″ square to 1.125″ square with a height of around .156″.

How a Vortex Tube Works

I recommended the customer incorporate our Model 5215 Cold Gun System into their test fixture to provide the necessary cooling. The reason for recommending this model over a plain vortex tube is that it is supplied with all the necessary heat shielding and sound muffling accessories anyone using a vortex cooler would want for ease of use. Besides these features, the Cold Gun comes with a magnetic base to mount the unit and also flexible tubing to allow for aiming of the cold air flow precisely where it is needed.

The customer incorporated the Cold Gun into their test rig and found it to be quite useful and fast at cooling the target.

That, my friends, is a straight forward Vortex Tube cooling application.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

Glad to Be Back

Published on by 1 Comment

I recently had a total knee replacement that took me off the job for two months. Between hospital stays and physical therapy I could not do much of anything. Which is a bummer for me as I am used to being active.

Today is my first day back to work and I am loving it. I missed the camaraderie of my co-workers and the bantering that goes on around the office. I missed most helping customers in solving their production problems.

I am eager to hear from you about any application for cooling, blow off, static elimination, compressed air conservation, and liquid misting. Give a call and an opportunity to help you 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

Missing parts

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This past weekend I converted my SV 650 back to near stock equipment.  This meant changing the front end back to stock, the rear sets (foot pegs), and rear wheel.  While it wasn’t that hard I still have to make sure all the pieces were there (which they weren’t) and then make something work in their place.

The bike went back together smoothly and I made sure everything was snug, or at least I thought.   Then on my way in to EXAIR on Wednesday, I was on the highway and tried to shift when I found out there was no shift lever!  The shift linkage had come loose and was dangling by one end waiting to fall off.  I immediately pulled off to the side and tightened the linkage back up and got it to work.   When I checked the linkage before I left for the day, it appeared fine.   Then on the way home when I was on the highway, the same thing happened.  By the time I made it to the shoulder this time, the shift linkage was gone.  Luckily I was close to my exit to get off the highway so I cut through downtown Cincinnati. The only problem now was that I only had first gear which meant that I was red lining the engine to keep up with traffic and to be able to stop and go.  Other than everyone staring at me because my motorcycle was screaming like a banshee, I made it home safe and sound.  The picture below shows the part that fell off.

This reminded me of a time when I found a very valuable piece to be missing off a vacuum I use in the garage, the part that holds the filter on.   This little piece must have done the same as my shift linkage and vibrated free, then gotten thrown away with the debris.

If I would have been using an EXAIR Chip Vac or Heavy Duty Dry Vac, I wouldn’t have had to worry about missing pieces or vibrations from a motor causing something to come loose.  There’s no internal moving parts that are going to come loose or fall off.  Everything is compressed air driven so I don’t even have to worry about heat build-up, bearings, seals, or even the prongs on the plug getting bent.

It’s not just Industrial Housekeeping Products that have no internal moving parts, it’s virtually all of our products here at EXAIR.  So if you have a vacuum that has stopped working or lost some pieces, just give us a call and we’ll help find an EXAIR product that will work for your application.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF