Month: March 2015

All Kinds Of Useful Accessories…If I’d Only Known…

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I’ve been learning an awful lot about car stereos lately. See, the LED display on the stereo in my wife’s car stopped working. It was intermittent for a while…I kinda knew deep down inside that it wasn’t going to fix itself…but it’s stopped working entirely now. So, we went out last weekend and got a great deal on an “open box” unit at a local Big Box Store. I’ve been back to The Store twice now, because…I’m embarrassed to admit…I didn’t do my homework on what all I needed up-front. I’ve spent almost as much on wiring harnesses, adapters, and hardware as I did on the stereo itself (which doesn’t bother me much…it was a RIDICULOUSLY good deal…maybe because it DIDN’T come with anything) and, three days later, I have everything I need to complete the installation. Which, since I have the wiring harnesses made up and all the plug-in adapters in hand, means I just have to plug in three connections, tighten four bolts, and snap the dashboard panel back in.

I tell you this, dear reader, as a cautionary tale…not just for car stereos, but for compressed air products. At EXAIR, we want to make it as easy as possible for users to get the most out of our products, so we offer a variety of very beneficial accessories:

Universal Air Knife Mounting Systems for our Air Knives.

Plumbing Kits for our Long Super Air Knives.

Stay Set Hoses and Swivel Fittings for our Super Air Nozzles.

A clip-on style Mounting Bracket for our Atomizing Spray Nozzles.

Chip Shields for our Safety Air Guns.

A broad assortment of Vacuum Cups, Fittings, Hoses, etc., for our E-Vac Vacuum Generators.

High quality Reinforced PVC Conveyance Hose for our Line Vac Air Operated Conveyors.

A variety of Suction Tools for our Industrial Vacuums.

Side Mount Kits for our Cabinet Cooler Systems.

And this doesn’t even include the products in our Accessories line – Filter Separators, Oil Removal Filters, Pressure Regulators…heck, we’ve even got accessories for our Accessories:

Again – EXAIR wants you to get the most out of our products. If you want to find out what else we might have to help you do just that, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Tag Teams

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

Some of the perks with my job are the ways we create solutions.  And with this solution, we had to create a “Tag Team” to meet the criteria.  We have a customer that has a long conveyor line that travels outdoors from a quarry to the facility.  The issue was with snow.  With the amount of snow that we have been getting this winter in the northern regions, they had to try and keep their product free from snow and ice.  Most of the time, the snow could be easily displaced with our Super Air Knives.  But, when the temperature increased; the snow became wet and heavy.  This would cause the wet snow to stick and roll up into small snow balls.  With the speed that the conveyor was traveling, the Super Air Knives needed help.

 

Knife and Nozzle (Tag Team)
Knife and Nozzle (Tag Team)

In analyzing a solution, we could increase the shim thickness to increase the force.  But when the temperature decreased and the snow was light and fluffy, the excess compressed air would be wasted.   We decided to add High Power 2” Flat nozzles with the Flexible Stay Set Hoses.  They were positioned at different angles to break the wet snow into smaller forms.  Then the Super Air Knives would clear the finer snow off the product.  If the temperature decreased and the wet snow was not an issue, the High Power 2” Flat Nozzles could be shut off.  This kept the conveyor running as well as saving compressed air during the cold season.  In some applications, we may have to combine EXAIR products to solve a problem.  If you ever feel that your compressed air application seems difficult, just tag one of our Application Engineers to team up and find a solution.

John Ball
Application Engineer
johnball@exair.com
twitter.com/exair_jb

 

Heavy Duty Dry Vac Works to Vacuum Broken Automotive Glass

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

At EXAIR our products have a rare capability to span across many industries and applications to serve our customers’ needs.

HDDV
EXAIR’s Heavy Duty Dry Vac System

One such application is for a customer who produces vehicle safety systems for the automotive industry. Part of their continuing development of new product involved testing which, in the realm of vehicle safety systems, means breaking stuff.

In this specific case the breakage was occurring to the glass on a vehicle which required the technicians to clean up afterward, during their dissection process to see how things worked. And so, they were in the market for a high power vacuum system that could pick up the bits and pieces of broken glass from the ground and from car body parts. See below for a couple of photos of the areas.

broken glass 2broken glass 1

There really was not a big dust component to the debris. And the customer wanted the most powerful unit they could have in a compressed air operated vacuum system.

Once we understood their wants and needs, we recommended the Heavy Duty Dry Vac System to them. The Heavy Duty Dry Vac System provides the user with some of the highest vacuum levels that any vacuum system offered by EXAIR can provide. The Heavy Duty Dry Vac System mounts to an ordinary 55 gallon, open top drum to provide plenty of storage for the debris collected. The vacuum generator unit is constructed of hardened tool steel for superior abrasion resistance. The system comes with a large surface area vacuum bag to filter the air exiting the barrel to keep the operator safe and surrounding area clean from re-deposit of any dust or debris.

Previously, the customer had been using the electric, roll around, electric vacuums for home use. They were using the vacuum system so much, they were wearing these out at a rate of one every two months. The reservoir was so small they could not clean up the whole mess generated from just one test. And the sound level of the electric units were found to be un-pleasant for the technicians.

Once the customer had model 6197 Heavy Duty Dry Vac in place an operational, the unit met all of their performance criteria for a new system.

Do you have a large debris clean-up operation that is performed frequently?  Do you have a need for a high vacuum level system to pick up heavy debris?  Please contact EXAIR and get an idea of how we can help in your application too!
Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
nealraker@exair.com

Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Over the past few weeks I have started to really look at the seemingly endless “Honey-Do” list for around my house.   As Russ Bowman mentioned a few blogs back it is still fairly cold here in Ohio so I immediately removed anything that has to do with being outside or the garage.   I decided to finally tackle the smallest room, the bathroom.

You see, our house was built in 1951 by skilled workers and has only had one other family live in it than mine.   The original family had a woodworker in it because I find lots of detailed cuts and trims that you don’t see in other homes so I know the house was well cared for.  In the 8 or 9 years we have been there we  have had the normal joys of home ownership but nothing that I couldn’t handle.   That is of course until we decided to spruce up the bathroom.

The bathroom was the one room we hadn’t done anything to and you could tell.   I decided it was at least time to repair the cracks in the walls and slap on some fresh paint, maybe a new medicine cabinet, and some other updates.   Well, what was once merely a crack in paint quickly evolved to the entire bathroom now needs a skim coat of joint compound.

What was once just a crack in paint is not an entire wall scraped to the plaster.
What was once just a crack in paint is now an entire wall scraped to the plaster.

This all happened in the course of about 5 minutes.   I just started to scrape the crack to get the loose paint off and sure enough it turned into what is shown above.   The bad news is the crack runs the full length of the wall and this is only a third of the wall.  Needless to say, I am now in over my head but am willing to give the repair a shot on my own but have already called in backup just in case.

Compressed air systems may have a lot of characteristics in common with my honey-do list.  The small issues may go for years without being checked or fixed, the list of items needing looked at may be growing daily.  Even worse, what you think might be just a small leak that doesn’t amount to much could actually be just the tip of the iceberg.   Instead of putting off the maintenance and the list of items to look at on your compressed air system, start checking those items off today.   If you don’t have a list, take a look at our 6 steps to compressed air optimization.   A little work now can save a lot of money later on.

EXAIR Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System
EXAIR’s Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System

 

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF