I was recently contacted by a plastics manufacturer who specializes in producing precision medical components. In this particular application they were pushing an ETFE tube onto a heated, flared forming pin. Once the tube is set onto the pin, they placed the assembly into a shroud where they used their shop compressed air running through a manifold split into separate lines to cool the part. This process was working but it takes approximately 1 minute so they called EXAIR looking for a way to reduce their cooling cycle time and increase their daily production.
I recommend they use our Adjustable Spot Cooler and plumb the cold air exhaust to their existing manifold. The Adjustable Spot Cooler incorporates a Vortex Tube to provide a specific temperature drop from the compressed air supply temperature. The output temperature and cold airflow can be easily adjusted using the control valve on the unit. Ducting the output flow would allow the cold air to distribute evenly, not only reducing the cooling cycle but also providing more dimensional stability to the finished product.
Please note, that we do not always recommend running cold air through a manifold because many times these manifolds are metal and simply act as a heat sink, which removes the cold temperature from the air stream. In this case, however, the manifold was made of plastic and the air lines to the formed tube assembly were short. The plastic material insulated the cold air and the short air lines running to the tube assembly also decrease the time the cold air has to lose heat. Applications with typical metal manifolds and longer air distribution lines are best served by using the Adjustable Spot Cooler directly on to the application and eliminating the manifold.
This is just one example of how incorporating a Spot Cooling device into an existing application provided a more favorable end result. Don’t hesitate to give us a call and see how we can help improve your process too.
Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN