Month: June 2013

No Need To Tell Anything But The Truth

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Last week, naval & military history buffs (like me) observed the anniversary of the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942). This was a significant victory for the United States, in that it dealt a crushing blow to the Imperial Navy just six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor – a blow that their shipbuilding industry was unable to recover from. It also resulted in the sinking of four of the six carriers that were used for the Pearl Harbor attack. The strategic acumen of the US commanders, as well as the bravery & skill of the men in their charge, is undisputable. But one of the key details in their victory was the fact that they lied their butts off. See, US intelligence had broken the Japanese communications’ secret codes, and had found out that Japanese intelligence had broken theirs. This is where espionage gets tricky: The US played the “they don’t know that WE know that THEY know…” card against the Japanese, and sent out a bunch of false messages about ship locations and logistics conditions, and the Japanese fleet sailed right into one of the most well executed ambushes in military history.

The thing about false information is that it only works out for the party presenting it, and usually not more than once. Bryan Peters wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago, titled “Don’t Be Fooled By Fool’s Gold,” about how we tested a competitor’s air knife, which used more air than they said it did…the obvious problem being that they claimed their air knife cost LESS to operate than ours, but it in fact cost much more.

At EXAIR, we don’t operate like that. Partly because; let’s face it; dishonesty is bad business – what do you tell a customer whose flow meter reveals a gross discrepancy with your published data? THAT’S an uncomfortable conversation right there.

Mostly, though, we just don’t have to. EXAIR has always taken great care in developing the most efficient, most effective Engineered Compressed Air Products that can be made. If you don’t believe it, we can prove it, in a couple of ways:

*Any catalog product comes with a 30 Day Unconditional Guarantee. We invite you to “put it through its paces” for up to a month. If you’re unsatisfied for any reason, we’ll arrange return for full credit.
*For a side-by-side comparison, we can test your existing compressed air product(s) in our Efficiency Lab. We’ll provide comprehensive data, obtained from calibrated instruments, by (with as much humility as I can muster) highly trained experts in the industry. We’ll even document it with photos and video if you like.

And our products’ tests will show just what we publish. When you make the best, you don’t need anything but the truth in order to brag about it.

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

Long EXAIR Super Air Knife Kit Provides Upgrade to Existing Blow-off Application

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

One of our long standing customers is a float glass manufacturer in the Middle East region. They had long been a customer for our Cabinet Cooler systems as their processes obviously tend to be quite hot.

They had recently come to me with a new problem they had in their pattern line wire separator. There are two sets of clamps that grip the glass, one set upstream and another downstream. The problem was that small chips were accumulating on the clamping pads and causing visual defects in the glass when clamped upon.

Their previous blowing “system” if you want to call it that, was a simple, perforated pipe connected to compressed air. The pipe was ineffective from many points of view. It did not produce a very forceful stream of air to blow the chips, it consumed a ton of compressed air when it was in operation, was very loud and quite un-safe to the operators in the area.

The one thing that the customer needed was a length of 84 inches for their blow off solution. EXAIR was able to meet this need fairly easily with our 84” Aluminum Super Air Knife Kit which was available from stock.

LSAN

The Super Air Knife was positioned along-side the glass line to provide a momentary blast of air all along the length prior to gripping with the upstream and downstream gripping pads. This action cleared any debris and stopped the glass from being defective as a result of the clamping action.

The key to success in the application was in being able to provide a forceful blowing action evenly all the way along the length of the glass so no spots were missed.

Do you have a large or wide area blow-off application that you would like to discuss? Please contact our Application Engineering department and we will be glad to discuss your application. Or you can fill out our Application Assistance Worksheet and send it in for us to review and follow up with you.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

Track Days Will Never Be The Same

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

We all know that change is always right around the corner, there are far too many variables in life to know exactly what is going to happen.  That’s the joy in it.  As the track season has begun this year so has the burden of owning a trailer that is large enough to haul more than just your own bike.   When two of my friends and I bought a 20′ trailer, we only planned on carrying our 3 bikes, all of our stuff, and maybe 1 extra bike.

The only problem has been that over the past two years of owning this trailer, more and more people seem to need a ride to the track.   Well this just makes it more of a hassle for us to get everyone’s stuff and make sure everyone has all they need.  Not to mention hotel rooms get a little crowded at 6 people.

So, we finally decided to sell the big trailer and it just so happened that my brother-in-law was looking for one to carry around a 1966 Nova he is restoring.  So, this past weekend, I drove to Skaneateles, New York to deliver his new to him trailer.   In case you have never been there, it is in the country and so when I sent this picture to my buddies, their response was, “Wow, you really did take her to a farm upstate.  Looks like she’ll have plenty of room to run around.”

20130602_091504

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Now that the trailer is gone and the next track day is only 2 weeks away, we are all trying to figure out the best way for us to get there.   So it looks like we’ll be back to the car caravan where everyone tows their own bike and we all have hours of fun on the CB’s.

Here at EXAIR change is happening every day.   We are constantly improving processes, designing new products, or figuring out ways to get information to and from our customers faster and easier.  We’re always looking for a good challenge to promote thinking outside of the box also.  So if you have any questions on your compressed air application then give a call, email, fax, chat or visit.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Summer Static

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

As we head into the warmer months, I’ve been taking more calls and receiving more emails about Cabinet Coolers.  This is welcomed, just like questions about static control when temperature and humidity drop during colder months.  Nevertheless, static can still be a problem, as seen in the photo below.

summer static

This photo is from an end user transferring a fine powder for packaging.  The outlet side of the machine has a static control system present, but between this regulation and the pickup point, there is a section of plastic hose which insulates the two halves of the system.

We approach static control in one of two ways – either with or without the addition of compressed air.  A system which incorporates compressed air (at a very low pressure as to not disturb the process) will likely have a greater effect on the static.  A system which doesn’t incorporate compressed air will be effective, but has a limited range and will need to be installed close (within 1-2”) of the static source.

For this application, I recommended our Stay Set Ion Air Jet system, model 7294-9362.  Aimed toward the pickup point at a low pressure, the ionized air will eliminate the static and the flexible Stay Set Hose allows for the output airflow to be positioned to the perfect angle.

For application questions or advice, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer.

Lee Evans

Application Engineer

LeeEvans@EXAIR.com

@EXAIR_LE