Month: August 2015

Can an Air Amplifier Be Used As A Vacuum Generator for a Vacuum Chuck?

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment
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Adjustable Air Amplifier

I had a recent discussion with one of our overseas distributors whose customer buys a lot of the Air Amplifier model 6040 for another application and wanted to know if they could adapt it to a new application as a vacuum generator.

The customer’s need was to produce a vacuum of -400 mbar (-11.81” Hg) for the application. The input pressure at which they needed to produce this vacuum level was 6 BARG. The customer needed a vacuum flow of about 57 liters per minute which is not too high for us to consider.

My colleague at our distributor asked me if I could run a test to see if the model 6040 (3/4” Aluminum Adjustable Air Amplifier) could produce the needed vacuum level with 6 BARG input pressure. This is something I could do rather easily with some fixtures we already had made up in our lab. So, I set up the test and ran the Air Amplifier at 6 BARG input pressure. The unit, at its stock air gap setting was able to produce about -131 mbar(-3.87” Hg) of vacuum. I tried adjusting the input pressure and the air gap setting on the Air Amplifier. The lowest vacuum I was able to achieve was in the range of about -178 mbar (-5.26” Hg). Since this vacuum level was not close to the prescribed need, I advised my colleague of the values and told him that model 6040 would not work for this case.

And so, in the spirit of one of my favorite TV shows, Mythbusters, I then asked the question, “What would it take to produce a vacuum level of at least 400 mbar and 57 liters of vacuum flow?”. After consulting my handy dandy, new EXAIR Catalog 28 I was able to find the data I needed to resolve to a model number recommendation. My search using the data above led me to the Adjustable E-vac model 840015M which is our second smallest out of four possible models available. The designation of the “M” at the end of the model means the unit is included with a straight through muffler for sound attenuation, an all important feature for vacuum generators.

Model 840015M specifications indicate it has ability to produce vacuum flow of 114.7 liters per minute when powered at 5.5 BARG while producing a vacuum of -406 mbar (-12” Hg). This model has capacity to produce vacuum levels all the way to -847 mbar (-25” Hg) if necessary, so having plenty of head room for this recommendation to go higher will be no problem at all.

The morals of the story are: If you think you might have a crazy idea, it probably isn’t so crazy after all. If you have a scenario that you think we might be able to test with our equipment, we’ll sure give it a try if we can. Finally, new Catalog 28 is packed full of good information to help make determinations based on performance characteristics much easier so that we can make what we feel is a firm recommendation. And if we don’t think something is a viable idea or can’t be done, we will be sure to let you know that too.

Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
nealraker@exair.com

@EXAIR_NR

EXAIR Webinar: Simple Steps for Big Savings

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment
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EXAIR Super Air Nozzle Versus and Open Blow off

EXAIR will present a free webinar hosted by Design World September 15th, 2015 at 2 pm EDT ( UTC/GMT -4 hours). I will be presenting the webinar about Intelligent Compressed Air Products. What do we mean by Intelligent Products? We are referencing nozzles that are quiet, safe, and efficient. They are engineered and manufactured to improve efficiency and limit compressed air use by entraining ambient air. The smooth lines of these nozzles produce laminar flow that reduces wind shear creating a powerful quiet blow off.

The focus of the webinar will be to quantify the cost of homemade blow offs and the return on investment of upgrading these simple installations to an engineered solution. We will base our calculations on a 20 HP Air Compressor, an 1100 Super Air Nozzle, a 1/4 Open Copper tube, and $0.08 per kWH electricity cost.

In addition to the cost of compressed air, we will cover two safety issues. First, we will cover dead end pressure. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.242(b) limits the dead end pressure to less than 30 PSIG. We will talk about what type of nozzles do not comply with this regulation, and how engineered nozzles are designed to meet this requirement. Second, we will talk about the noise exposure standard and the effects noise will have on your facility.

The main focus of the presentation will be cost of compressed air blow offs, noise, and important OSHA standards for compressed air. We will also touch on a variety of other compressed air topics. The presentation will be sponsored by EXAIR with 31 years of end-use compressed air product manufacturing and application experience.

CLICK TO REGISTER HERE

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com

Cooling A Sewage Pump

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment
Overheating pump at sewage facility
Overheating motor at Kuwaiti sewage facility

One of the great things about being an EXAIR Application Engineer is the variety of applications that find their way through our proverbial doors.  In a given day we could be anything from solve static problems for a garment manufacturer to prevent an overheating condition at a pumping station.

The latter of the applications mentioned above has played out over the last few days with an end user of our products in Kuwait.  This end user operates a sewage pumping station which uses 10 dry well pumps located 30m (99 ft.) below ground.  The rooms which house the pumps are not cooled, and as a result, the bearings within the pumps tend to overheat and take considerable time to cool.

What this application needed was an efficient and effective way to cool these motors (and their bearings) from a measured high of 90°C (194°F) to ambient temperatures.  And, when it comes to a convective heat transfer such as that found when cooling by passing an airflow over a material, the greater the volume of air, the greater the cooling.

Enter the Super Air Amplifier.  An air amplifier will multiply the volume of air fed through the unit.  For example, if we supply a 4” Super Air Amplifier with 80 PSIG line pressure, it will consume 29.2 SCFM and move a volume of 730 SCFM at the outlet of the unit.  At a distance of 6” away, the air volume will further amplify to 2,190 SCFM.

What this means for this application, is that we can use a small amount of compressed air to generate HUGE air flows over these motors, bringing down their temperatures and preventing the overheating condition.

If you have a similar application or are in need of a potential EXAIR solution, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Energy Savings for Blow Molding Machines

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

A blow molding facility contacted me about an energy audit. He had 40 machines that were operating at his facility. His compressed air system was able to produce 1200 SCFM (2,039 M^3/hr) of compressed air at 435 psig (30 Bar). He understood the cost to produce compressed air, and how it would affect the bottom line. He wanted to evaluate each blow molding line to monitor the amount of compressed air being used by each machine. Compressed air is a necessary utility, and when you use large portions in your operation, like in blow molding, you need to observe the usage because it can eat into your profits.

Costly leaks
Costly leaks

As machines get older, or modifications are made, compressed air use can increase. You can have a cylinder that is bypassing, worn out seals, a valve that does not completely close, or fittings that start leaking. Like a drip in your faucet, it adds up rather quickly. For his energy audit, he placed an EXAIR Digital Flow Meter with the USB Data Logger on each compressed air line that was feeding a machine. He had two types of blow molding machines, a single stage and a two stage. With the USB Data Logger, he was able to record the amount of compressed air being used by each machine. He downloaded the information into Excel which included time stamps. He took that information to see how much compressed air was being used to run certain products on certain machines. He then compared the information to know which machines to target for maintenance.

Digital Flow Meter
Digital Flow Meter

In the end, he was able to identify some of the problems with his machines, and he could better track the cost to produce each product. To be more competitive as a manufacturer, you have to start looking at energy costs, which includes the compressed air system. With EXAIR products, we can measure the current use, find the problems, provide efficient engineered products, and measure the savings. If you would like to go over your compressed air system with our Application Engineers, you can contact us at EXAIR.

 

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb