This morning I was chatting with my colleague Russ Bowman about taking care of kids. I was complaining about having to try and chop vegetables while holding a 1 year old in my other arm. Russ shared some perspective with me. He always took pride in what he could get done with an infant or toddler in one arm. While I was complaining, he pushed me to see what I could really get done. I thought cutting squash was pushing it. He informed me that I lack either imagination or perseverance in my dad skills. I wish his wife (or mine) had been around because, I’m pretty sure they would offer “perspective” to both of us about how much you can get done with infant in your arms. Which would be fine, Russ and I know our better halves are better than us… Thank Goodness. Otherwise, the kids would not stand a chance.
The discussion reminded me of EXAIR’s foot pedal. It is like an extra hand to control your air supply. I had a customer this week that was punching 4 mm diameter plastic circles from a part. The 4 mm diameter plastic chips built up on the machine which would lead to a housekeeping nightmare. The customer installed a 3/8″ Line Vac, model 6078, to evacuate the plastic chips after each punch. The Line Vac worked great to evacuate the chips, but running it constantly required 5.6 SCFM of compressed air. To get the job done, the Line Vac only needed to run five seconds after each punch operation, and the punch operated three times every minute. Controlling the air supply to the Line Vac to only turn on when the Line Vac was needed would save 4.2 SCFM of compressed air.
Unfortunately, the operation required two hands. One hand to position the plastic blank, one hand to actuate the punch. This meant controlling the Line Vac would need a third hand. With a foot pedal, model number 9040, though, the operator could gain additional control to operate the Line Vac only when needed. This saved 4.2 SCFM of compressed air. The foot pedal would pay for itself in 124 days. On a 3/8″ Line Vac that may not seem like much, but a foot pedal controlling a 2″ Line Vac would save 33.75 SCFM and the payback time would be 15 days.*
*Assuming 24 hour day and 250 working days per year.
A foot pedal is an excellent option, when you need that third arm. Check one out today at www.exair.com.
Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com