Month: June 2014

Gardens & (Failed) Quick Fixes

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

With the stretch of hot weather we are having and the rain we got last week my garden at home is absolutely out of control.  At least it was until I spent a good two to three hours picking weeds and grass out of the garden. This year we doubled the size of our garden from last year.  When I did the garden last year I dug out most of the sod and it really helped cut down on the grass in the garden.  When we expanded this year though I was just a little too busy to get the sod dug out and when a good friend tilled the garden for me he churned all the grass into the area.   This was fine as he did it for free and I didn’t have to do it; but now I am paying for it.   The grass that was in that area is now growing faster than anything else in my garden and was actually choking out all of the onions I had planted.

First I tried to quick fix problem by throwing more dirt over top of the grass to smother it.  That worked for about a day.  So I did what I had to do, I got in on my hands and knees and picked every little bit of grass out, roots and all.   By the end of the next day the onions had all perked up, the tomatoes continued blooming and the zucchini look to be the first vegetable we will enjoy eating.

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The fact of the matter is that I didn’t take time to make sure everything was in order before expanding the garden.  I didn’t remove the sod, communicate that I preferred the sod out, or mention to my friend that if not removing the sod please chop it up well (a hard thing to state when your friend is doing you such a big favor).  Because of that I had to dedicated a good part of my day at home working on a problem I could have prevented.   The fact of the matter is a quick fix is just a temporary fix and it is only a matter of time before the real problem reappears and demands your attention.

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The same can be said when you band aid an electrical cabinet that is overheating by opening the door and putting a fan in it.   That doesn’t solve the problem, it may go away for a short moment, but then it will come back even worse. A fan will provide some temporary cooling but it will also deposit dirt and debris on to the electrical components (all that grime on the fan blades and guard is the same stuff being blown into your cabinet) which causes them to run hotter, short out, or burn.  So instead of using a quick fix give us a call and let us help you determine the correct Cabinet Cooler System to cool your cabinet and get the problem solved the right way. The reality of installing a Cabinet Cooler is it takes a short amount of time and effort to install. If compared to other cooling alternatives it may be considered a quick fix – but one that lasts years, is low maintenance, and reliable.

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Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Everybody Wants Options III: Options You Can’t Live Without

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

I wanted to call today’s blog “Everybody Wants Options III: Back to the Future Past.” But, I wanted to get your attention so I settled on Options You Can’t Live Without. In this case, I’ll choose to jump on the bandwagon and just like Hollywood, if we have a hit of a blog topic, we are going to make as many sequels as we can. After Justin wrote about ordering options in Everybody Wants Options, Russ followed it up with the blockbuster Everybody Wants Options II: Is Bigger Better?. I hopefully will conclude the series with “Everybody Wants Options III: Options You Can’t Live Without:, which is also the conclusion to my OSHA compliant Air Gun Primer, which I have already started here and here.

I don’t know though, maybe in twenty years they will want to make two more trilogies after “the mouse” buys us. Perhaps even JAR JAR Binks could write the blog.  …Mesir wants Yousir to buy BEST AIR NOZZLE EVER… 

Last week, I spoke about how important it is to get the right air gun for your shop, so that your employees are safer, more efficient and effective.  Today, I want to talk about the Safety Air Gun themselves and why you would select each one.

EXAIR Safety Air guns include the Precision Safety Air Gun, the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun, the Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun, and the Super Blast Safety Air Gun.

Left-right: Precision, Soft Grip w/Stay Set Hose, Heavy Duty w/Rigid Extension, & Super Blast Safety Air Guns

The first step in figuring out which gun will work for you is to figure out how much force and flow you need to get the job done. If you do not know the force and flow of your existing solution, the second step is to contact EXAIR and speak with one of our Application Engineers. They can assist you with the best choice air gun for your application or measure force, flow, and noise levels of any of your current air nozzles, open pipes, air guns etc. and provide a report through our efficiency lab service.

The Precision Safety Air Guns are the smallest, lightest and lowest flow safety air guns. This gun has the smallest diameter nozzle and extension which fits in to tight spaces. It will fit best in smaller hands, and is suitable for light duty applications and environments. They can generate between 2 ounces to 8.1 ounces of force. They can produce flows between 2.5 SCFM to 8.3 SCFM of compressed air.

Our most common Safety Air Guns are the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun. These guns are cast aluminum with a comfortable ergonomic grip to help relieve fatigue. Soft Grip guns resist rugged industrial environments and have a built in hanger hook for easy storage. They utilize the same small nozzles as the Precision Safety Air Guns, but can also use EXAIR’s whole series of air nozzles up to 1/2 NPT Safety Air Nozzle.  These flows range from 2.5 SCFM up to 60 SCFM. The force of these guns can range from 2.0 Ounces up to 3.3 pounds of force.

If the Soft Grip Safety Air isn’t enough power for your shop, the Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun will give you a powerful rugged gun for industrial environments.  This gun is also cast aluminum with a slightly larger handle and a soft rubber grip with a full length trigger. The Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun features a steel 3/8″ NPT air inlet for added durability against the harshest of environments.  This air inlet can generate force from 22 ounces of force up to 3.3 pounds of force.

Finally, if you need more than the Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun, we have to call the Super Blast Safety Air Gun, which can generate up to 23 pounds of force.  Batten down the hatches when you turn this thing on and it will conquer the heaviest duty blow off or cleaning applications such as removing scale from steel.  This gun features an Spring Loaded Manual Valve, which will automatically shut off, if dropped.

And don’t forget…on top of these choices of guns and nozzles, EXAIR’s air guns can be outfitted with light weight aluminum extensions up to 72″ long. They also can be outfitted with a chip shield for eye protection.  If you need to get into a tight spot we have Stay Set Hoses mounted on the Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun or Soft Grip Safety Air Guns.

That’s more options than you can get on your Chevy.  Give an Application Engineer a call, if you have any questions.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW

Cold Guns and Air Amplifiers Cool Thermal Spray Coating Process

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

A Kentucky based thermal spray coating company contacted me recently to solve a problem with excessive heat in their process. This specific application was facing long cool down times after using a plasma spraying process to apply powder feedstock onto a large diameter pipe. The pipe is chucked and turned on a lathe, similar to the photo shown above.

When discussing the application, we first aimed to address the heat and powder dust created by the plasma jet. While some over-spray and dispersion of the feedstock is acceptable, too much can cause variance in the coating finish, leading to quality control failures. Cooling during the application can reduce over-spray and minimize the coating variance. With the intention to provide light cooling and some blow off, we deemed the 5330 High Power Cold Gun Suitable to remove heat and blow away excessive debris.

We then aimed our sights on shortening the cool down time for the pipe following completing of the thermal spray coating. Presently, the cool down time was acceptable, but the application was using (2) open-ended 1” NPT pipes to deliver the compressed air, which is completely unacceptable!

By installing (2) 4″ Super Air Amplifiers on the lathe opposite to the side on which the plasma jet is operating, the end user can replace the 1″ open pipe blow off. A 4″ Super Air Amplifier can provide 2100 SCFM on to the target area, but requires only 29.2 SCFM of compressed air at 80 PSIG. If you compare that to a 1″ open blowoff which can easily require 600 SCFM at 80 PSIG you realize the incredible air savings a Super Air Amplifier can provide. Cool down time improvements are still being recorded and evaluated. When the results are in an update will surely follow this blog.

For cool down and blow off needs in your application, contact and EXAIR Application Engineer.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Everybody Wants Options II

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Justin Nicholl, I hear you loud and clear about how Everybody Wants Options. I would go so far as to say a lot of people NEED options. This was evident in an application that I had the pleasure of assisting a caller with recently. They make plastic parts for the automotive industry, and manually remove them from a conveyor line, where the operators experience a nuisance static shock. This static charge also presents a problem when the parts are packaged for shipping, so there are two great reasons for getting rid of it right there.

On to the options: they weren’t sure if they wanted to mount something over the conveyor (like a Super Ion Air Knife or Ion Air Cannon,) or if they wanted to have manual, precise control (as with an Ion Air Gun.) I recommended that they try the Ion Air Gun…for ease of setup, it can’t be beat: you can literally go from opening the box to blowing ionized air in a matter of minutes, provided you’ve got a compressed air line and an electrical outlet within reach. If it is indeed successful in eliminating the static charge (and this is a VERY common & successful application,) then the only question is: Will the operator want to have another hand free? If so, they can return the Ion Air Gun for full credit per our 30 Day Unconditional Guarantee, and get either the Super Ion Air Knife or Ion Air Cannon; whichever they choose. In fact, it’s very likely that using the Ion Air Gun for a little while will better inform their decision.

EXAIR Static Eliminators: Mount in place, or hold in your hand.
EXAIR Static Eliminators: Mount in place, or hold in your hand.

EXAIR product lines, across the board, are rife with options. I wrote a while back about a purchasing agent who got a request for “the largest, most powerful air gun they’ve got” and ordered a 6′ Super Blast Safety Air Gun (with a 1-1/4” NPT connection, 6 foot extension, and a whopping 23lbs of force) when they just wanted to blow off some chips from their machine tools. Again, we used the 30 Day Unconditional Guarantee to get them a 6″ Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun (3/8” NPT connection, 6 inch extension, and a very usable 13oz of force.)

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Another user recently tried a Stainless Steel Line Vac – the product they needed to convey was too abrasive for an aluminum Line Vac – but they just weren’t getting the conveyance rate they wanted. No problem…the Model 150200 2” Heavy Duty Line Vac is made of an abrasion resistant hardened alloy, and boosts conveyance performance dramatically. The dimensions were the same, so the new one dropped right in, saving them from exploring the option of re-plumbing their lines.

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Regardless of your compressed air product needs, EXAIR is the most likely solution:

*Super Air Knives are available in lengths from 3” to 108”. They come in aluminum, 303 or 316 grade Stainless Steel, and PVDF plastic (with Hastelloy-C fasteners and Teflon shims for the most aggressive installations.) This is, by far, the most options you’ll find in the industry. And they’re all in stock…waiting until next week doesn’t have to be an option.

*Cabinet Cooler Systems come in capacities from 550 BTU/hr to 5,600 BTU/hr. Whether your enclosure needs NEMA 12 (oil tight, dust tight, indoor duty), NEMA 4 (splash resistant) or NEMA 4X (corrosion resistant,) we’ve got it. And yes, they’re in stock.

*If you need to move a lot of air, or draw a vacuum, our Adjustable Air Amplifiers and Adjustable E-Vacs, respectively, offer you infinite options in range of performance with the simple twist of a locking ring.

You want options? We’ve got them. You want help narrowing them down? Call us.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
www.exair.com
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