Month: June 2014

Everybody Wants Options

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

It was a nice Saturday morning, I had the day all planned – cut the grass, edge the driveway, sidewalk and flowerbeds, maybe reorganize the garage, when the phone rang. “Justin, this is your mother, what are you doing today? I was hoping you could go with us to help me pick out a new car”. Now, anytime she feels the need to identify herself as my mother, this typically means my plans are irrelevant. So what she was really saying was, “whatever you have planned for today, cancel it.” Of course I wanted to be a good son, so I rearranged my plans and politely accepted the offer – what other option did I really have?

I was pleasantly surprised as she had actually done a little research and narrowed her decision down to two different manufacturers and two different models. What she wasn’t prepared for, were all of the options that she needed or wanted. (As we know – what the salesman says you WANT versus what you actually NEED, are two completely different things).

Sunroof? Heated Seats? Reverse sensing system? Fog lights? 4-Cylinder or V6? Leather or Cloth Seats? Etc.  She was overwhelmed to say the least. Since, she liked the way both vehicles drove, it was going to come down to the options she wanted and the extra price for those options.

After a grueling (for me) 6 hours, she made her decision and took delivery of her new car last week. She is very happy with her choice and the options she chose. I, on the other hand, was surprised at how long it takes to teach your mother about the options she chose on her new car. It’s now on to Father’s Day to discover what sort of options my Dad may have planned for me this weekend.

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At EXAIR, our customers sometimes ask what options we offer for placing their order. We make it easy for you and yet you still have plenty of options to choose from.

To place your order:

  1. Email your order to orders@EXAIR.com
  2. Enter your order online at http://www.exair.com/
    • – If you have a model number go to the quick order box in the right hand, grey column
    • – Browsing for a need? Go to the “Buy Now” section in the black, top navigation bar
  3. Call in your order to 1-800-903-9247
  4. Fax in your order to 1-866-329-3924
  5. Or even stop in and we’ll get it taken care of while you wait

If you have any technical questions or an application that requires assistance, we have an option for that too – you can contact an Application Engineer.  We strive to ensure that no matter how you prefer to reach us, it is easy, straight forward, and in a timely manner.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_JN

Line Vac Assists Pump Bottle Assembling

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

We have a customer in the packaging industry who packages liquid soap into bottles. Part of the process involves loading the push-pump dispenser into a capping machine to be assembled to the bottle after filling.

The problem was that the push-pumps came in cardboard boxes which had to be wheeled over to the machine and dumped into the hopper. This was rather difficult as the top of the hopper on the capping machine was over eight feet off the ground. So, the customer went looking for some sort of solution to suck the pumps up out of the box and into his hopper.

Fortunately, he found EXAIR Corporation and our Line Vac product. We discussed the rate at which he needed to convey the product, the distance and the dimensions of the parts. All was well suited for the 4” Aluminum Line Vac Model 6086. The customer tried a few different configurations with the Line Vac and his hose because manipulating a 4” hose around isn’t all that easy to do. So the customer came up with an ingenious little waist-high platform with the vacuum feed on one side into which the parts could be slid into and vacuumed up to the hopper.

The customer is going to evaluate the effectiveness for this method of loading. He was planning on a time savings of at least 10 minutes per box to fill the hopper. He is also banking on the fact that it is now a safer application because an operator no longer has to climb a ladder to fill the hopper.

Are you in the packaging industry? Do you have an odd-shaped product that you could use to move from point A to point B rather quickly?  Perhaps you have a hopper that needs to be filled? Give one of our Application Engineers a call today to discuss your application.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

 

Selecting the Right Air Gun is a Key for Success

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

Last week I wrote about the OSHA requirements for using compressed air for cleaning in “How to Meet the OSHA Compressed Air Standard“. That was a title only an engineer could love. It was functional and with no flash. In my quest to write to my audience, I’m going back to the well today. I want to talk about using the right tool for the right job.

Every engineer worth his salt knows that using the wrong tool to do the job can make the task at hand ten times harder, than it needs to be…

And every weekend warrior of home, or automotive repair has used the wrong tool for the job. Most of the time these tools are going to work in a pinch. But when they don’t work, they can fail spectacularly. Yes, the flat head screw driver might be able to turn the Phillips head screw, but it can also strip the screw or slip out and dent the wall. Yes, the adjustable wrench works on quite a few different bolts, and will work as a weak hammer in a pinch, but when you have to go back in the house to get a rubber mallet, the socket set and discard the pieces of your broken wrench, you will wish you had the right tool in the first place.

I want to include the importance of using the right air gun for the job. Our priority for specifying air guns (and some would argue,  in life) should be safety first. Protecting the people using our products is the most important task. The best way to protect them is to specify the right Safety Air Gun to get the job done.

How can getting the right air gun increase safety? If we have the right tool for the job, we can avoid modifications to the safety features of our air gun. Below are two examples of what we see on a regular basis.

crushed air gun
Air escaping this gun will be LOUD, annoying and violates OSHA standard 1910.242(b).
Open Air Gun
Nothing says I’m costing the company money like a wide open air gun – and it’s DANGEROUS.

 

The air guns above belong to new customer, who had provided air guns with a cross drilled nozzle to the employees in their shop. The employees gave up their homemade air guns and managed to comply with OSHA standards for a few minutes, some may have even reached hours of safety…

I can almost envision the sequence of events… The OSHA inspector warns or fines the company for using  blow offs which violate the standards for pressure and/or noise exposure. Management makes certain the guns get replaced, Supervision or engineering finds a cheap quick solution, and no one checks to see, if the air gun can do the work. Workers find that the new air guns don’t have the same force, so they start altering the nozzles and guns to get the job done.

Several months pass. The OSHA inspector returns. The company is still fined for violating Directive Number STD01-13-001 standard 1910.242(b), because their blow offs can be dead ended and they are using a pressure higher than 30 PSIG. Also, a noise audit finds that the sound level in the plant is higher, than it has ever been, so all employees are now required to wear hearing protection.

Not quite the fix that everyone thought. Modifying air guns and/or air nozzles can create additional safety hazards for employees and increase compressed air expenses. Consider engineered Safety Air Guns and our line of Super Air Nozzles when looking for a safe and efficient solution to your processes and compressed air applications.

Left-right: Precision, Soft Grip w/Stay Set Hose, Heavy Duty w/Rigid Extension, & Super Blast Safety Air Guns
Here are some legitimate solutions for increasing safety and decreasing noise. Left to right: Precision Safety Air Gun, Soft Grip Safety air Gun w/Stay Set Hose, Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun w/Rigid Extension, & Super Blast Safety Air Gun.

At EXAIR, we strive to provide our customers the support and guidance, which they require to run a company safely and efficiently. We offer an efficiency lab to test any homemade blow offs, guns or nozzles.  Once we have tested these pieces for force, flow, and noise, we can specify a nozzle, safety air gun, air amplifier, or air knife that will meet the force requirement, while saving compressed air and lowering the noise level. Please contact an Application Engineer today to get your employees the right tool to do their job safely every time.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW

 

Keeping Things Cool in a Steel Plant

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

High Temperature Cabinet Cooler

Taking measurements in a manufacturing process can be a vital component to quality control.  If deviation from the desired process is recognized during production, it can save not only a headache later, but lost profit.

When a large steel plant in India began to experience overheating problems in their line scanner (which measures the steel on a belt 3 meters below and scans for undesirables), they contacted EXAIR.

This scenario is typical for an application with an overheating condition.  However, this application was a bit unique in that the temperatures involved were very high – at times approaching 200C.  Such a high application temperature poses some challenges for most any other cooling solution, but a vortex tube based product like our EXAIR Cabinet Cooler systems provided a solution for this challenge. Our High Temperature units are built for high ambient temperature environments like this one, and with the proper information and calculations can be effective. In this case, the application had two things keeping an EXAIR solution possible – a small enclosure, and the need for a relatively small temperature differential.

The end user in this application was clear that the Cabinet Cooler didn’t need to provide drastic cooling, it simply needed to lower the cabinet temperature enough that overheating conditions for their line scanner were resolved.

In calculating the heat load using the information provided in a Cabinet Cooler Sizing Guide, we determined the application, in the absolute maximum condition, may require only a few hundred BTU/hr. of cooling. Considering the high ambient temperatures, elevated compressed air temperature and other heat related factors, model HT4640 was recommended to keep their production in operation.

Even though the numbers lined up, I still felt there were stones left unturned regarding the high temperature of the application.  After checking how the variables will effect cooling capacity, and confirming the temperature range of each component in the HT4640 Cabinet Cooler, I felt better.  In this case, the customer was kind enough to let us know the installation was working well and even provided us a picture of the new sensor box installation.  Even though we understand our products provide solutions and keep production up and running, it is always nice to receive feedback after the solution has been implemented.

Cabinet Cooler in steel mill

Another problem solved by EXAIR.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE