One of our customers contacted me this week about a potential application for an Air Knife.  The problem they were facing was the uncontrolled accumulation of chips inside of a lathe.  As the chips freely bounced around, some would land on the cylinder rod used to automatically open and close the lathe door.  These chips would enter the cylinder rod bore, causing poor/slow operation, and eventually failure.

For such a problem, we considered two solutions.  The first, was to use (2) 18” Super Air Knives (aluminum) to create an air curtain.  This could eliminate the need for the door and the robot which loads the lathe could enter as needed, but this presents obvious safety concerns.  The second was to use a 12” Super Air Knife above the spindle head, and aim any chips created towards a designated collection point.

The later seemed to be the much better solution, but the only concern was a potential “crash” with various items that enter the machining center.  Fortunately the force created by a Super Air Knife is more than sufficient to direct the chips even from a distance of 12”.

This application concern was remedied using a Super Air Knife, an integral component to our Super Ion Air Knives, which are used to eliminate static.  If you have an application which may potentially benefit from these products, or any others we manufacture, give us a call.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@exair.com
@EXAIR_LE