Month: August 2014

Cooling Hot Cameras with EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

Sometimes, the design of an application is a perfect fit for the application purpose until parameters change.  For instance, if ambient temperatures creep a little higher than normal, or workflow increases and machine cycle times are longer than they were planned to be initially, unwanted downtime can become a problematic reality.

Ambient temperatures are sometimes an uncontrollable variable, and increased workflow is a blessing all businesses hope to have.  But, when these, or other, variables change and a process disturbance starts to affect productivity, a viable solution becomes a necessity.

Solving industry problems is the backbone of EXAIR products.  Whether the need is cooling, cleaning, coating, conveying, or conserving (compressed air), there is a good chance we can offer a viable solution.

For example, a global fabrics manufacturer contacted me to discuss a problem with their quality control system.  As they make their proprietary fabrics, they are inspected through a semi-enclosed camera system to ensure the product form is to spec.  As summer temperatures have increased for their U.S. operations, and as demand for their fabrics has increased, the fabric output and the heat within the facility has noticeably increased.  With increased output comes increased use of the quality control camera system, and with increased heat comes the additional heat load upon the cameras components.

This customer was getting by using some air flow generated by a blower to cool the cameras, but blowers heat the output air flow. Ultimately the blowers added too much heat to the higher ambient temperatures and the cameras were failing.

Given the setup of the quality control system, which used (6) cameras atop a semi-enclosed QC station, Super Air Amplifiers were found to present the best solution.  The Air Amplifiers can use large volumes of ambient air to convectively remove the heat building up upon the cameras.  Super Air Knives could also be used, but Super Air Amplifiers were chosen based on airflow pattern (conical vs. laminar airflow).  The Super Air Amplifiers were able to replace the existing, underperforming and problematic blowers to improve production capacity and workflow in this application.

If you have an application in need of increased uptime and think EXAIR products or engineers may be able to help, give us a call.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR
@EXAIR_LE

The Rate Is Right?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

This morning, we played our own little version of a popular segment of the game show “The Price Is Right,” right here in the Application Engineering department. Brian Farno (our manager and host extraordinaire) presented us with a question (that he already knew the answer to after speaking with a current customer):

What would you expect the conveyance rate to be, for an EXAIR Model 6083 1-1/2” Aluminum Line Vac, conveying hot-melt glue pellets, across a total distance of 15 feet vertically & 100 feet horizontally? (And please note we normally have a bulk density in lbs./ft3 and/or other associated information about pipe bends, product shape etc. – but we took our best shot at it anyway).

Our office doesn't look like this. I kinda wish it did, though...
Our office doesn’t look like this. I kinda wish it did, though…

We didn’t have those cool podiums to stand behind that recorded our answers on the screen, but here’s what we came up with:

Russ Bowman: 5 lbs per minute
Dave Woerner: 10 lbs per minute
Justin Nicholl: 8 lbs per minute
Professor Penurious: 1 lb per minute (Insert $1 bid joke here)

Now, we had all referenced our wealth of data charts for conveyance rates with our Line Vac product series. We used several very different materials over a few different lengths/heights, and use that data to estimate what a user might expect to see, based on how close their application is to our actual test conditions. I actually used this data for my answer – a 1-1/2” Aluminum Line Vac conveyed tumbling media (64 lbs/cu ft; the lowest bulk density material we tested for) at a rate of about 5-1/2 lbs/minute, going 20 feet vertically.

Left: hot-melt glue pellets. Right: tumbling media
Left: hot-melt glue pellets. Right: tumbling media

Turns out, Dave came the closest without going over: they were actually getting a little over 11 lbs per minute…again, going 15 feet up and 100 feet over. The user was so pleased with the results, they’re incorporating a Line Vac in a similar application, involving hot-melt glue pillows. We’ve now added their data to our database and are pleased with the knew knowledge.

If you have an application involving hopper loading, bulk material conveying, chip removal, parts transfer, etc., and would like to find out how an EXAIR Line Vac can help, give me a call. We might both be impressed with the results. Come on down!

Professor Penurious, by the way, is still concentrating on hosting the game shows.  Stay tuned…

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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New Beginnings

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

It’s been a big week for the Nicholl family as our 5 year old son started Kindergarten. On Monday night we had orientation where we learned all the new rules/policy changes for the upcoming year and he was able to meet his new teacher and classmates. He was a little nervous at first because there are 19 kids in this year’s Kindergarten class and last year in K-4 there were only 8. But his anxieties were relieved relatively quickly as 4 of his previous classmates were in this year’s class, including his “best bud”. To make things even “more awesomer” (he is only 5), they were all going to be able to sit together – which I kindly advised his new teacher that she may want to reconsider this choice. Five little buddies all sitting together? That may not be the easiest situation to handle! – HAHA.

kindergarten_room

Wednesday was the big first day so of course it was an event – Mommy, Daddy, Nana and Maw Maw were all there to welcome him to, as he refers to it, “big boy school”. He went straight in to the room, took out his snack then went out in the hallway to hang up his book bag in his locker. Locker? I didn’t have a locker in Kindergarten! That’s when my little guy reminded me – “Dada, this is big boy school, of course I have a locker now!” He then said his goodbyes to us, walked right back in to the room, sat down at his desk and started going through his new supply box. We all left happy and were relieved that he was so excited to start this new chapter in his life. As his father, it is a little bittersweet watching our little man grow up so fast but it is “awesomer” to see him also expand his learning.

At EXAIR we are always striving to grow and expand too. We recently released our new Catalog # 27 which includes some of our exciting new Intelligent Compressed Air Product additions:

• One-piece construction Super Air Knives from 3” – 108” – available in Aluminum, 303 and 316 Stainless Steel, and PVDF (PVDF up to 54″) construction.

• Internal Mix Deflected Flat Fan Pattern Atomizing Nozzle – designed for tight spaces with spray pattern at a right angle to the nozzle orientation

• Internal Mix 360° Hollow Circular Pattern Atomizing Nozzle – designed so the spray pattern is directed away from the nozzle in all directions

• No Drip Internal Mix Deflected Flat Fan and Internal Mix 360° Hollow Circular Atomizing Nozzles – the same features as above but also provide the stopping of liquid flow when compressed air is turned off

• High Lift Reversible Drum Vac System – with its high powered vacuum, this system is able to vacuum liquids up to 15’. Available in 30, 55 and 110 Gallon

• 110 Gallon Heavy Duty HEPA Vac – meeting all the HEPA requirements but now available in 110 Gallon capacity

Catalog 27

To discuss how these new products may work with your process(es) or any of our other products may benefit your current system, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
JustinNicholl@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_JN

EXAIR Vortex Tube Cools Gas Sample for Analyzer

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

sample gas cooler

Every once in a while the above application for cooling with a Vortex Tube comes to us from a customer looking to cool down a gas sample before it goes into a gas chromatograph for analysis. The sketch above is a very good illustration of how the customer might go about cooling down their gas sample. The “cooler” is essentially a metal tube into which either copper or stainless steel tubing is added in a coiled section. A valve controls the inlet flow of gas from the process. The Vortex Tube purges and cools the space between the inner coil and the outer wall of the housing to provide temperature differential for the thermal transfer to occur. The outlet for the cooled gas is connected to the analyzer and there is a third port for the cold compressed air to escape back out from the housing.

The question from the customer was what size Vortex Tube should they consider for the application. Fortunately from previous experience we know that one of our medium size vortex tubes, model 3225 provides good, all around cooling for these applications. The specific cooling power required depends on a variety of factors including start temperature, finish temperature, cold air temperature and the efficiency of the heat exchanger itself. The volume of flow for both the cooling medium and the vortex tube cold flow also play significant roles.

In many cases, the customer isn’t going to know all of the factors involved and are willing to make a test with their cooling system. In such cases, EXAIR has an experimental Cooling Kit model 3930 that allows the user to change to different flow rates and adjust to different temperatures on the cold flow to increase or decrease cooling power as needed per their test result.

In the past, water was the cooling medium of choice. Water cooled systems are effective and can provide a higher maximum cooling value. But water brings with it a whole different set of challenges that many folks do not want to deal with. Water cooled systems inherently leak which creates additional housekeeping and safety issues. This convenience of not being messy makes vortex tube cooling a very attractive option.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer
 nealraker@exair.com