Month: November 2013

The “Selfie” and the Heavy Duty HEPA Vac

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Selfie – “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website” – was named the “Word Of The Year” by Oxford Dictionaries editors. This news broke yesterday*, and, little did I know, the practice has been around for quite some time…

OK; maybe you SHOULDN'T believe everything you see on the Internet
OK; maybe you SHOULDN’T believe everything you see on the Internet

The folks at Oxford pick their Word Of The Year by, primarily, an increase in the frequency of usage. Turns out, they search a variety of mainstream media sources, and count how many times the word appears, per billion words. “Selfie” was the runaway hit this year, going from a frequency of about 500 appearances per billion words in January 2013, to over 5,000 appearances per billion words in October.

Source: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/11/word-of-the-year-2013-winner/
Source:http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/11/word-of-the-year-2013-winner/

Earlier this year, EXAIR introduced our Heavy Duty HEPA Vac Systems for 55 Gallon Drums to meet the demand for a rugged, reliable, large capacity High Efficiency Particulate Air vacuum system…and it has indeed met that demand. So much so, in fact, that we decided to develop an even larger capacity unit, which became available for purchase yesterday*: the Premium 110 Gallon Heavy Duty HEPA Vac Systems. Like our other Premium Industrial Vacuum Systems, this comes complete with a steel drum & dolly, a Static Resistant Vacuum Hose, 20 feet of compressed air hose with a shutoff valve & pressure gauge, Heavy Duty Aluminum Tools, and a Magnetic Tool Holder, which attaches to the drum for easy storage & access.

Selfie with the very first 110 Gallon Heavy Duty Dry Vac
*To celebrate the coincidence, here’s a selfie with the very first 110 Gallon Heavy Duty HEPA Vac

If you’d like to find out more about our Industrial Vacuums, or any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products, give us a call.

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

How does the Muffin Man lift his Mini Muffin Pans?

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

This week application is brought to you by the muffin man.  A customer called in this week who was charged with building a small muffin pan lifting system.  The customer, an automation company, was contracted by a bakery to lift individual aluminum baking pans from a stack of pans to load on conveyor where the pan would be filled with batter and baked.  The weight of the pan was around .25 pounds so the weight was minimal, but the mini muffin tins didn’t have a large flat surface for a vacuum cup to lift upon.  The bakery wanted the vacuum frame to lift multiple pans at once to meet there production schedule.

ModularE-VacFamily_jpg

So what makes this system noteworthy?  Normally with vacuum systems, the weight of the unit is most important, but in this case the shape of muffin tin is the limiting factor.  The mini muffins were only .8″ wide at the base, and the cups were less than 1/4″ apart.  Because of this geometry there was only one vacuum cup that could gain a good grip on the muffin tin.  The part number 900766 vacuum cup is a small bellows style cup that is .73 inches.  This small diameter part allowed us to lift on the flat round bottom of the muffin cup.  I advised the customer to use at least (2) vacuum cups on each muffin pan to increase capacity and have some redundancy in the system to lift a pan with every movement of the frame that the automation company would be moving.

If you look at the vacuum cup lifting capacity chart (scroll down the page when it opens), you see that even with (1) 900766 and 15 inches of water column we can lift 6 times the weight of the pan (1.5 pounds), so we don’t need to use a non-porous generator, but can use a porous generator which will still have enough vacuum flow, even if we have an open vacuum cup from a pan that is left behind.

Since he was trying to lift three muffin tins at once,  we used (2) of the model 820003M vacuum generators, and (6) of the 900766 vacuum cup.  Each of the 820003M fed three of the vacuum cups on different pans, so that if one of the vacuum generators has a failure the pans will still be lifted.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
davewoerner@exair.com
@EXAIR_DW

Old & Worn Out

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Over the weekend I had the opportunity to help a dear friend with a weekend project. Being in his late 70’s it was a little more strenuous than what he was capable of. Then, me being in my mid 60’s, I found out that I was not the man I used to be. It’s very disappointing that as we age our physical endurance diminishes. I have always done my own work and now find myself needing assistance as did my more elderly friend. Very hard to accept and cope with.Drum Vac

Except for wine and cheese, products we use deteriorate with age. Not the EXAIR Reversible Drum Vac though. With no moving parts and operating on compressed air, they will vacuum fluids indefinitely.

With the turn of a knob, the compressed air powered Reversible Drum Vac will fill or empty a 55 – gallon drum in 90 seconds. Coolant sumps can be easily refilled, floor spills vacuumed, or contaminated liquids transferred.

Would you like to learn more about this awesome tireless product? Call 1-800-903-9247 and ask to speak to an application engineer.

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

5 Years Blogging

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

As Kirk Edwards mentioned earlier this week, we’ve blogged for more than 5 years now.  The EXAIR Blogstarted before I was part of EXAIR, and it continues to grow more and more with every post which is almost a daily occurrence.  If you look at some of the first blog posts they are fairly straight and to the point on applications, the first one even included a video of a popular application.

first blog

Now if you look at them, we don’t just cover applications, each Application Engineer has an individual voice and message that can almost always loop back to an experience here at EXAIR.  Over the years our blog has grown to include pictures, polls, and videos from all different areas, even some crazy videos from Professor Penurious (search “professor”).

When we started the blog, it launched EXAIR into the Social Media world, we now have a presence on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and You Tube.  Not only are we on these sites, we are constantly posting new information, new ideas, and new ways to utilize our products.   Over the five years we have seen some social media attempts from similar companies come and go.  We have also seen some stellar examples from other manufacturers. Oddly enough, the companies who have been able to sustain their social media campaigns and remain proactive also seem to sustain new product development and remain proactive with their customer service efforts. We consider ourselves in good company and have learned many things from other manufacturers who have chosen to remain committed to blogging and other social media platforms.

One reason we sustain and remain committed is to ensure that our customers have the most up to date information about optimizing your compressed air system.  We also enjoy being able to express our personalities through a different platform. We want you to have as many ways possible to contact us, learn about us, but also get a response.

If you have any questions, or would like some more information on anything we post on a social media site, feel free to contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF