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Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at EXAIR Corporation!
EXAIR is closed for the holiday on Thursday and Friday, November 27th and 28th, 2014.
Month: November 2014
Quick Disconnects & Why Not To Use Them
Quick Disconnects are a quick and easy solution to hook up devices to your compressed air system. These units can be found in quite a few factories and are more often than not being used incorrectly. I know that on the air compressor in my garage, the only way to hook anything up to it was to use 1/4″ quick disconnects. Chances are they are even a few of them within your facility, assuming you have compressed air available.
When you really look at a quick disconnect though you start to see why it shouldn’t be used to install every compressed air driven device there is. You can see in the pictures below that a 1/4″ quick disconnect that goes to a 3/8″ NPT adapter has a .192″ opening at the small end. A 3/8″ Schedule 40 iron pipe will actually carry a .493″ inner diameter. If you were to use this quick disconnect on something like a 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac, you will starve it for air due to the limited ability of the small diameter to carry enough air volume. This, in turn, will limit the performance of the Line Vac. This is because the through hole on the quick disconnect cannot pass enough air to feed through to the Line Vac.
On the 1/4″ quick disconnect to a 3/8″ NPT this may not be as large as a problem as the next picture. Below you can see a 1/2″ quick disconnect that is going up to a 3/4″ NPT. a 3/4″NPT Schedule 40 iron pipe is actually a .824″ inner diameter. The quick disconnect at most has a .401″ inner diameter.
Even though you are providing the correct thread size for your connection (a 3/8 MNPT and a 3/4 FNPT respectively in our example) the quick disconnect’s small inside diameter could be too much of a restriction for the volume demanded by an end use product. Due to this restriction point you will see pressure drops in your system when using a device with a properly sized inlet for its demand of compressed air being fed with an improperly sized quick disconnect. This is one of the main reasons one of our first questions in troubleshooting an EXAIR products performance with a customer is whether or not they are using quick disconnects.
If you would like to learn more about how to properly plumb your EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product, feel free to contact us, or take a look around our Knowledge Base.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
Go Vote For The EXAIR 1104-PEEK!
In case you missed our blog on EXAIR having 4 finalists for Product of the Year 2014 from Plant Engineering there is a link here. Today however, I would like to focus on just one of those products, the Model 1104-PEEK, 3/8″ FNPT Peek Plastic Super Air Nozzle.
The 1104-PEEK is constructed out of PEEK Thermoplastic which is designed to be chemical resistant, non-marring, and carries a high temperature rating. The chemical resistance of PEEK plastic will help greatly in locations such as plating operations, chemical etching or cleaning metals, painting, or glass etching. The low friction characteristic of PEEK plastic makes it ideal when trying to blow off delicate surfaces which may be scratched by metallic blow off nozzles such as, painted surfaces, glass, plastics, or even polished metals. The PEEK thermoplastic is rated for environments up to 320°F (160°C). This can be ideal for paint or coating curing ovens. This could also come in handy around the exit of a furnace where there may be caustic fumes mixed with elevated temperatures.
When you combine all of the benefits from PEEK plastic with the engineered solutions from EXAIR, you will get an efficient, safe, engineered solution to your blow off application that will work in a caustic or hot environment, yet not mar a delicate surface.
If you have an 1104-PEEK already in your application, or are using another EXAIR product, please go and vote for us in the Plant Engineering Product of the Year awards. We greatly appreciate all who are willing to vote for any of our products and are proud to continue bringing you the best products we can offer that fit your every compressed air need.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
EXAIR Super Air Wipe Provides Measurement Process Improvement
One of the most repeatable aspects of EXAIR products is the ability to make sustainable, measurable improvements to an application. Whether the application need is for spot cooling to improve process speeds, static elimination to eliminate defects, or debris blow off to improve quality, EXAIR products fit the bill time and time again.
In the photo above the hub is used as a quality checking device after a machining process. The hub remains stationary while a machined part is brought into the application via robot. During the mating of the machined part to the hub, to check proper fit and tolerance, small chips were becoming trapped between the hub measurement sensors and the machined part.
To eliminate this disturbance a 3” Super Air Wipe was installed to keep the OD of the measuring hub clean and free of debris. Since installing the Super Air Wipe, debris and damage related measurement errors have been reduced to zero.
These tighter quality control capabilities have increased the efficiency of the application and reduced the need to rework existing product.
If you have a similar application, or one for which you think an EXAIR solution may be viable, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer.
Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE