Month: March 2013

A Bachelor Life Weekend

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

So this past  weekend began early for me.  A little while after I left for work last Friday,  my Wife and daughters embarked on a 10 hour journey with my mother and niece to visit some family.  It’s a little different because I am normally the one that is leaving to go to track days.  (Which can also be considered bachelor weekends).

The first thing I thought of was this scene from the classic Risky Business.

Of course, I immediately tried to think of all the things I want to do with the time.  The problem was, I have about 150 hours of projects that I wanted to do and really only had about 48 hours to do so. That being said, I had to prioritize and decide what would be best to do with the time that is given. Sleep, as unfortunate as it may sound, was first on my priority list. Sleep was quickly crossed off the list as a friend arranged to show up by 8:00 am to work on our motorcycles. I ultimately settled on making sure I didn’t miss my favorite meal that my family doesn’t care for – a gyro from Sebastians.

What it boiled down to is the fact that I only had so many hours in the day to get the projects done and when the dead line hit I needed to have the most important ones done.  The key point is to prioritize, much like the Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compress Air System does.

6 steps

My personal priority list looked like this:

1. Measure the consumption of frozen foods and fast foods one can consume in a weekend.

2. Find and Fix the leaking faucets in the bathtub.

3. Upgrade to being aggravated with plumbing and go blow off some steam.

4. Turn off all the lights in the house for the entire weekend.

5. Re-purpose some lumber to create storage in my garage.

6. Control the air temperature in my house to save a little more money.

Yeah it was a great weekend, but they can come home any time now…

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

EXAIR Receives Four Product of the Year Awards from Plant Engineering Magazine for 2012

Published on by Bryan PetersLeave a comment

EXAIR was recognized by Plant Engineering Magazine as a Product of the Year Award winner in four different categories this past Monday evening at a celebration in Chicago.  Readers of the magazine vote to choose the products that they think are the best in each category.

These were the categories and the products that were chosen:

w2012POTYtrophies_600x390

It was a great evening and a wonderful ceremony put together by Jim Langhenry, Bob Vavra, and all of the great folks at CFE Media.  As one person at our table said, “it’s a celebration of great people and great companies that still MAKE things!”  Everyone here at EXAIR certainly is happy to be a part of a great evening for manufacturing. It was an honor to be chosen for so many prestigious awards and recognized along with so many other industry leaders that still believe that manufacturing and innovation have an important place in our changing world.

Here at EXAIR we are celebrating our 30th year in business, and we are proud that our long history of industry leadership, our continuous development of innovative products, and our great people continue to drive us forward each day.

We don’t do it for the awards or recognition – but they sure are great additions to our large collection!

Claims are easy, proof is hard.

Bryan Peters
President

HOT!

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

HOT!

I had the opportunity this week to help determine the best products to cool a conveyor in dire need of lower temperatures.  Not quite as hot and large as the image above, but similar.  Originally Kirk Edwards provided guidance to the end user and recommended Super Air Knives to bring the conveyor temperature within range.  They worked wonderfully.

Now, there was a second point on the conveyor line which was determined to also need cooling.  After discussing the potential to use a series of Super Air Amplifiers, the end user decided to stick with the Super Air Knife setup known to work well – a decision which I fully supported.

I’ve also had the opportunity to entertain and train our Thai distributor this week.  Neal Raker and I brought Vichai Srimongkolkul of OilPure Technologies up to speed on our new products and have excellent in depth application discussions.

For our international users we offer the same support and technical guidance as an end user in the United States, as well as local support through our network of competent distributors.  If you are one of our many blog readers located outside of the US and need application assistance, never hesitate to send an email or call us directly.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

How Dry Is Dry?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

We get asked this question every now and then, in regard to applications where a user wants to blow off:

*A finished part prior to packaging. Nobody wants to get something in a wet box…it reminds me of stories about people giving kittens or puppies as gifts. Don’t do that to a poor little animal!

*A bottle whose surface can’t be wet, or the label won’t stick

*Pizza dough, so it doesn’t stick to the rolls used to flatten it (this is straight out of our Application Database, which you can get full access to, if you’re a registered user on our website)

These are just a few situations where EXAIR products are successfully used to remove moisture from a product’s surface. But the question remains: How “dry” is “dry”? Let’s consider the methods available:

-Heat: Think about how fast your clothes dryer works, as opposed to the clothesline. Especially in December. You can get just about anything 100% “dry” if you apply enough heat for a long enough period of time. Thing is, heating elements need a LOT of energy…while you’re thinking about how fast your dryer works, think about your electric bill.

-Time: Now we’re talking about the clothesline. This is absolutely the most cost-effective method, provided you have the time.

-Towel drying: Moving on from the laundry room to the kitchen, we also move to the analogy of one of my least favorite activities: drying the dishes. Not only is it labor- and time-intensive, you can’t use the same towel for long…and now we’re back to the laundry room…

-Blowing off: This is where EXAIR comes in. Our Air Knives, Air Amplifiers, Air Nozzles & Jets, and Air Wipes are all designed specifically to maximize air flow, volume, and velocity, while minimizing compressed air consumption. The laminar flow produced is ideal to “strip” away moisture from the surface.

So, how “dry” is “dry”? I still don’t know, but if you have an application you’d like to discuss, give an EXAIR Application Engineer a call – we’re eager to help!

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
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