Month: November 2013

Sustainability – Fact or Fiction

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As the world goes eco-friendly it’s not clear how much environmental good will come from all the green products consumers are buying. Many companies peddle new or improved green products through their marketing campaigns, but it pays to look beyond the product pitches and into how the company behaves.

It’s refreshing to work for a company that is really walking the talk. EXAIR’s sustainability plan has real and quantifiable achievements.

  • Our variable speed drive air compressor reduced our electrical consumption by over 4,000 kWh in the past year compared to a conventional air compressor
  • Through a leak detection and mitigation program, one million cubic foot of compressed air per yer was saved
  • Migrating our customers to electronic delivery of invoices reduced traditional postal service mailed copies by over 50% and a 67% reduction in  printed paper pages
  • Most shipments use recycled Kraft paper with a perfect “green score ” of 360
  • Fresh water consumption was reduced through a coolant management program that extends usable life of water-soluble coolant from six weeks to six months.
  • Natural gas consumption was reduced by installing programmable thermostats wherever possible to match heating and cooling cycle with facility usage patterns
  • Solid waste/trash was reduced by 88% through and expanded recycling program
  • All metals, wood, waste water, cans, and plastics are 100% recycled

Do you want to improve your sustainability scorecard by reducing compressed air consumption?  Give our application engineers a call and they will be happy to assist you. They can be reached at 1-800-903-9247

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

EXAIR’s Runners, Crazy but Generous

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

In case you haven’t seen any of our blogs concentrating on our makeup of employees, EXAIR has a group of employees who actually think running is fun.  Needless to say, I do not find running to be one of my strong suits.  A few members of the EXAIR running crew are going to be running a rather difficult race this weekend.   This race has been said to be “one of the most grueling sub-mile runs on the planet” (according to the event organizers).

That’s right, this race is not a marathon, or a half marathon, it is said to be the oldest micro-mini marathon.   You may be asking yourself what kind of race is this?  Well it is a hair more than 1/3 of a mile, steeply uphill. This will be the 37th year for the Straight Street Hill Climb.

Straight

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The best parts of the race is all the proceeds benefit the Cincinnati Soap Box Derby, a great family event here in Cincinnati that goes on every year.  This is yet another way that the members of EXAIR give to our local community.  Now if we could just get Professor Penurious to finish up his Soap Box Derby car, and find someone willing to let their kid ride in it, we may get to compete in the downhill race too!  I doubt it would go as smooth as the video below however.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

It is an Honor to be Nominated…

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

This year Plant Engineering has nominated (4) EXAIR products for their Product of the Year award.  Even though all of our products utilize compressed air, we are nominated in several different categories: fluid handling, electric controls, environmental health, and compressed air.  As a company, we stick to designing products that efficiently use compressed air, it’s our breadth of product line which affords us the opportunity to be nominated in numerous categories.

It is an honor to be nominated… winning would be further validation of everyone’s hard work around here.  We know it’s a team effort all around; from receiving in raw materials to machining and assembly to shipping quality product out the door on time. We rely on the talents of our sales and marketing teams and have come to count on our customer service folks to be the best in industry. Our engineers continue to design new products and expand product lines at an impressive speed and the accounting people help keep it all in check. If you are willing, please visit Plant Engineering’s Product of the Year website to view all of the nominees and vote for EXAIR products.  Below is a brief description of our nominated products and links to our website for more information.

We really got our start in designing safe, effective and efficient compressed air blow offs.  We continued that tradition this year by creating a 1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle, model 1126.  This nozzle produces a powerful 1″ wide air stream with 9.8 ounces of force 12″ away from the nozzle.  Because the air flow cannot be blocked, model 1126 meets OSHA standards 29 CFR – 1910.95(a) and 1910.242(b).  It also maintains a quiet 75 dBA, and uses 10.5 SCFM when supplied with an inlet pressure 80 PSIG.  Please vote for this product here.

Did you know that you can cool up to 5,600 Btu/hr with compressed air?  Our Cabinet Cooler Systems utilizes vortex tube technology to create cold air, which can be used to cool electrical panels.  This year we released a dual Cabinet Cooler System made of 316 stainless steel for wash down environments and NEMA 4X enclosures that need more than 2,800 BTU/Hr of cooling that a single cooler can provide.  Please vote for this product here.

In industrial environments, electrical vacuums do not hold up for very long.  EXAIR has been manufacturing industrial vacuums to replace the standard duty and electric vacuums for over a decade, but what do you do if the environment is very dusty with fine particulate? With EXAIR’s Heavy Duty HEPA Vac, we remove the danger of this fine particulate from being ingested or inhaled from the air with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter that tested to IEST-RP-CC-007 HEPA standards.  The filters have a minimum of 99.97% filtration at the 0.3 micron level. Please vote for this product here.

Finally, we are nominated for a our No Drip Atomizing Spray Nozzle.  These nozzles are available in a variety spray patterns and flow rates.  The no-drip feature allows precise control of the amount of liquid used.  When precisely metering the liquid used in your coating process, the no-dip nozzle keeps up with your intermittent flow without forming a drip or a bubble to mar the uniform spray pattern that you need. Please vote for this product here.

Please take a look at these products and give EXAIR your vote.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
davewoerner@exair.com
@EXAIR_DW

I’m Back! But My A4 Isn’t…Commence Troubleshooting

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

Last week I enjoyed the company of Airtec Servicios, Dansar Industries, and Global Automation (EXAIR’s distributors in Mexico and parts of South America).  We met in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for an EXAIR training event that covered all topics of EXAIR products.

Following my return to the States, I dug into a project at home that I’ve been working on here-and-there; my 98 Audi A4.  In an earlier blog post I showed the damage done to the cylinder head when a valve-train component failed and a few valves were bent.  After rebuilding the cylinder heads on a bench here at EXAIR, I finally got the engine back together and hit the key for the first time since I bought the car.

Fortunately, the valve timing was perfect and the engine fired right up.  Unfortunately, however, was the terrible knock from the bottom half of the engine – the half I left untouched during the initial repair.  (See image below for my feeling on the issue)

Lie_down_try_not_to_cry_cry_a_lot_cleaned_525Now I’m faced with a dilemma of the best course to take, and after chewing it over, I’ve decided to open up the bottom half of the engine and make the repair.  The most likely cause for the noise is a defective wrist pin or connecting rod.  When I open it up, I’ll be sure to take pics and share for those interested. I had thought repairing the top half of the engine would make the fix because most of the time that is the case. Similarly, we occasionally experience reduced performance in our Reversible Drum Vac. Most of the time (I’d speculate 95%-99%) a simple cleaning is all that is needed (see video demonstration here) because this product has no moving parts there is little to go wrong. Occasionally it is another issue that is causing reduced performance; for these times we have the Reversible Drum Vac troubleshooting guide:

lit6203-Reversible Drum Vac Troubleshooting

So, sometime soon I’ll run through the next troubleshooting steps for the engine in the A4. If you need help troubleshooting an EXAIR product or a compressed air application, please contact EXAIR.

In the meantime, the A4 is relaxing, hanging loose at home – and I am too.  Mexico was wonderful, and the people were more than kind.  But, it feels good to be home.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE