Month: December 2013

EXAIR Could Save You $15 While Eating Lunch

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

At EXAIR we manufacture engineered compressed air products.  We have compressed air saving nozzles, safety air guns, vortex tubes, and even pneumatic vacuums – all engineered to be as efficient as possible.

Considering that compressed air is the most expensive utility to generate, it makes sense to keep compressed air use to a minimum.  Replacing open pipes used to blow off or cool an application with an EXAIR engineered product can save time and add OSHA compliance to a workspace.

Mold Application 1

Mold Application 2

For example, the photos above show a dry mold application.  The end user initially used drilled holes in a series of pipes operated at 80 PSI to blow off and cool the molds during production.  Not only was this an inefficient use of compressed air, it was also unsafe.

With an average hole size of 1/8”, and an average of (60) drilled holes per mold, the potential savings were HUGE!  An open 1/8” hole at 80 PSIG can consume 18.4 SCFM.  Replacing this drilled hole with an EXAIR model 1103 1/8” Mini Super Air Nozzle will reduce the air consumption to 10 SCFM – a savings of 47%!  With the potential to upgrade 240 drilled holes to an EXAIR engineered nozzle, the total compressed air savings are over 2,000 SCFM.

With a savings of 2000 SCFM, and a lunch break of 30 minutes, this end user would save 60000 SCF – during lunch!  At a cost of $0.25/1000SCF, this equates to a savings of $15.00 every day during lunch alone.  Extrapolating the savings out on an 8 hour shift, the savings become:

$240/day

$1,200/week  (operating (5) days/week)

$62,400/year  (operating (52) weeks/year)

In short, EXAIR nozzles put over $60k back into this company’s bottom line.

You can be next, just give us a call.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

When The Obvious Choice Isn’t

Published on by Russ Bowman

Do you have a copy of EXAIR’s Product Catalog? My opinion may be biased, but I think it’s one of the best ones out there. It’s arranged by product category, and gives you easy access to not only the model numbers of all of our stock products, but succinct and pointed details on principles of operation, examples of applications, dimensions, technical specifications, features & benefits, etc. They’re free for the asking – and if you don’t have the latest (as of this writing, #26), go ahead and ask too – you might be pleasantly surprised by what we’ve added recently!

Now, your application may be straightforward and simple, in which case, you can quickly and easily order any catalog product…almost all of them ship the same day. Our Design Engineers aim to make them simple to install and operate, so you could very well be “off to the races” in very short order. That’s our intent, anyway. But if your situation isn’t so clear cut, here’s a part of the catalog you should pay particular attention to:

tech800at120You’ll find this on the front cover, and the phone number is on darn near every page, too.

See, sometimes, “the usual suspect” isn’t the product that’s going to solve your application. Here’s a prime example:

willy wonka meme

A very popular candy maker (not this guy, but I do so love those Facebook memes) wanted to automate a part of their operation where they cut a large slab of chocolate into small squares, and then move them to a machine that individually wraps them. They were transferring them by hand, but figured they could improve efficiency by using a “pick and place” process, and were particularly interested in an air-operated vacuum system. On the surface, it looked like a “textbook” application for an E-Vac Vacuum Generator. Due to the delicate nature of the product, though, the higher vacuum levels produced would cause the lifting mechanism to mar the surface. And, as delicious as these candies are, it would be a shame if they didn’t look perfect too.

That’s where Application Engineering comes in. Like Joe Panfalone wrote about on Monday, we’ve got the education, and experience, that allow us to “marry the practical with the hypothetical to find the best answer.” We knew we couldn’t use high vacuum, but the pieces are so small and lightweight that a low vacuum level could be quite effective, if we had a decent vacuum flow. After discussion of the application and their expectations, we recommended a Model 120024 4” Super Air Amplifier which they fitted a stainless steel mesh screen to the inlet of, and were able to pick up the freshly cut chocolate squares delicately enough to prevent any marring of the surface at all. The automated process made it quicker and easier for the operators to get the candies to the wrapping machine, defect-free, every time.

So, no matter what the obvious choice (of product) may (or may not) be, the obvious choice for guidance with your compressed air application is EXAIR.  Call us and find out.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Line Vac Solves Long Distance Fish Line Installation Problem

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

An electric contractor contacted us about a problem that they had with installing the initial pull string (fish line) that is used to pull the primary service entrance wires to a power transformer through underground conduit. For short runs, they use a regular “fish tape” with no problem. However when it comes to longer runs (say over 50 ft), the solution becomes a little more difficult.

In the past, the contractor said that they used a small electric vacuum to try and pull the string through but that was a real hassle, took a bit of time and once the string made it to the suction point, it just kept going on into the vacuum cleaner itself and got tangled quite easily.

Another issue they face is actually clearing the conduit if it has been in the ground for any period of time. Small rodents, birds, snakes, water, etc all can find their way into the conduit over time. All of that has to be cleared before the local utility can pull the primary wires through.

After discussing the usual conduit sizes, we eventually settled on a 3” Aluminum Line Vac that would be able to produce a high enough airflow velocity to clear the debris and also pull the fish line through. Following are some photos of the Model 6086 3” Aluminum Line Vac attached to the conduit. Also shown is a fabricated conduit “pig”, a round piece of foam that is secured to the end of the fish string and inserted into the pipe. This piece allows the Line Vac to exert considerable pulling force onto the line. In this application, the conduit was over 120 ft. long and the job of blowing the string through took less than 30 seconds. Problem solved.

IMG_3495 (540x405)
3″ Line Vac sits on top of the conduit before feeding the fish line through
IMG_3503 (540x405)
Homemade “pig” to help clear large debris out of the conduit
IMG_3507 (540x405)
Exit of the 120′ conduit, showing the fish line has come through all the way

IMG_3511 (540x405)
Fish line is fed into the conduit by the power of the Line Vac

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

Experience Is What Matters

Published on by Leave a comment

Collectively EXAIR’s application engineers have 45 years with the company and 100 years of industrial experience. Each application engineer comes to us with “shop” experience and a college education. Between the two disciplines (real world and college experience), we can marry the practical with the hypothetical to find  the best answer to your compressed air challenges.

eng group

For me, I have industrial engineering and business management degrees. I’ve been a machine shop manager, manufacturing engineering manager, and a marketing product manager. Kirk comes from a family of industrial distributors and sold mechanical power transmission equipment for years, he also has a masters degree. Brian has mechanical engineering technology degree and was a service tech for a machine tool builder. Russ is schooled by the U.S. Navy in nuclear technology and has years of experience in the pump industry. Dave has a degree in mechanical engineering and worked as an application engineer prior to coming to us. Neal has a degree in industrial technology and worked his way through the ranks in the injection molding industry prior to EXAIR. Lee has an electro-mechanical engineering degree which he finished while working as an automotive technician and is also a six sigma black belt.

All this knowledge and experience is not confined to one individual.  Our cubicles are arrange so as to be in ear shot of one another. When you call in for technical support, you not only have the expertise of the engineer you are talking with,  but the entire engineering staff.

Being on the technical support line, we come into contact with hundreds of engineers from most every facet of manufacturing.  Be it industrial, textile, automotive, mining, power generation, paper/pulp, pharmaceutical or medical, we have had experience in serving these customers and more.

Need to update your compressed air system? Are you wanting to save energy by reducing you compressed air consumption? We would sincerely welcome the opportunity to serve you. Call one of our application engineers at 1-800-903-9247 [list of engineers ]

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

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