In every math or science class I ever took – from high school Algebra I, to CHEM101 in college, or a variety of classified material courses in Naval Nuclear Power School – it was always good form to show your work. And by “good form” I mean “necessary to avoid an F.” I’ve found, through helping my teenage sons with their homework (whether they want me to or not, but that’s another story,) the same rules apply today. And rightly so.
My oldest is slightly (at least) more interested in athletics than academics. Sunday night, as I was going to bed, I saw him in the living room. His face was not obstructed by his cell phone and he didn’t have his headphones on, so I saw a rare opportunity for a real-time conversation. He was watching game 7 of the NBA Championship, and it was near enough to the end of the game that I figured I could watch it with him and not sacrifice too much desperately needed sleep.
If you watched the series, you saw some phenomenal play by both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. If you saw the end of game 7, you saw “the block” – Cleveland’s LeBron James came out of NOWHERE to rob Andre Iguodala of a quick two points on a breakaway lay-up. During the obligatory replays, I kept thinking that what James had done might border on the physically impossible. Then, ESPN’s “Sport Science” reel put into perspective just how close to that border he came:
Now, we don’t have anyone who can chase down a professional athlete and jump 12 feet in the air to take a basketball away from him, but we DO have a staff of engineers who can test air blow off products and “do the math” on how much better a fit to your application an EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product would be. Our Efficiency Lab service is free and tests your current product to provide you a report comparing air savings, noise reduction, force values and a simple return on investment.
In our defense, I believe we are MUCH better at this than LeBron James or Steph Curry would be.
Do you want to find out how much quieter and efficient an EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product might be than what you’re using now? Give me a call…you can try one of our products in your facility, or we’ll test one of yours in ours.
Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Living in Cincinnati, it’s somewhat of an unwritten rule for sports fan that we don’t root for any Cleveland professional sports teams. Take for example the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, in-state rivals that just happen to both play in the AFC North division of the National Football League. Both of these teams were also founded by the same coach, Paul Brown, and share the same color orange in their uniforms. In Major League Baseball you have the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. The Reds were the first professional baseball team with the Indians following suit just a few yeas later. Although not league or division rivals, they still compete in interleague games dubbed by fans as the “Ohio Cup” or the “Battle of Ohio”.
When it comes to basketball, Cincinnati doesn’t have a professional team anymore so there isn’t any real feel of loyalty to any particular franchise. In Cleveland though, they have the Cavaliers who have been successful over the past few years, albeit with a little bit of controversy from one of their own – Lebron James, who was raised nearby in Akron, Ohio. I am a long time basketball fan who appreciates great talent. What I don’t care for is the “me first” attitude that has become all too common lately with professional athletes. The “King”, as James refers to himself, abandoned “his City” back in 2010 to join the Miami Heat organization to chase an NBA championship. He made the announcement in a live broadcast event called “The Decision” in which he announced he was ‘taking his talents to South Beach (Miami) and promised “not one, not two, not three…… championships”, which drew critics in the national media, as well as drawing the ire of fans back in Ohio. While he did help guide the Heat to the title in 2012 and 2013, he also lost a couple Finals appearances in 2011 and 2014.
At the end of the 2014 season, James did a little bit of soul searching and decided to return home to Cleveland to deliver a championship. His first year back, 2015, the Cavs finished the regular season with a 53-29 record and made their way to the NBA Finals. During the Finals run though, the Cavs lost their starting point guard and their starting shooting forward to injury. Needless to say this completely changed the teams dynamic, as without the extra support, Lebron was only able to carry his team two victories and they lost the series 4-2 to the Golden State Warriors.
Fast forward to this year. For the majority of the year, the two best teams in the NBA were the same as last year with Golden State leading the Western Conference and the Cavaliers leading the East. The Warriors broke an NBA record for the most wins during a regular season, finishing with a 73-9 record, breaking the 72-10 record previously held by the Chicago Bulls (led by the greatest of all-time, Michael Jordan – IMHO). Both teams had their struggles through their respective playoff runs but as fate would have it, would meet again to determine a champion. Golden State hosted the first two gams and pretty much manhandled the Cavs before heading to Cleveland with a 2-0 record. Game 3 was the polar opposite of the first two games, as Cleveland was able to secure game 3 with a 120-90 victory. The next game seemed to end all hope for the Cavs as Golden State dominated the final quarter to lead the series 3-1 before heading back to California.
Now, there has NEVER been an NBA team come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the title, so things were looking pretty bleak for Cleveland. It seemed the man who promised so much to “His City” was once a again going to fall short of delivering that elusive Championship. But as fate would have it, somehow, someway, the Cavs were able to regroup and come out completed dialed in and focused on the goal at hand. Well, really it came down to 2 key players for the Cavs, the starting point guard and Lebron James. Both players played out of their minds and willed their team to victories in game 5 and game 6, setting up a much anticipated game 7 finale.
Game 7 held up to the billing, it was awesome, even if you’re just a casual sports fan. The contest went back and forth with neither team getting out to more than an 8 point lead. The game came down to the last minute as both teams were tied with the Cavs point guard hitting a clutch 3-pointer that gave Cleveland the lead. The Cavs were able to hold on and win by 4 points, securing Cleveland’s first championship in almost 50 years. Lebron finished with a triple-double, only 1 of 3 players to hold that honor in Game 7 of the finals and was named the series’ MVP. Lebron’s average for the Finals were 30.2 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.5 assists. Basically, he lead every recorded stat out of every player, he undoubtedly led “his” team to the title. It really was a fun series, even for the casual fan.
So congratulations Cleveland!
EXAIR has played a part in the fun of the NBA as well. Our Line Vac Air Operated Conveyors have been incorporated into a specially designed Gatling gun used to launch T-Shirts into the crowd at Milwaukee Bucks’ games. We’d like to see the Cavaliers get one of these too!
The patented (no longer patent pending) EXAIR No-Drip Atomizing Spray Nozzles have been nominated and are a finalist in the Flow Control 2016 Innovation Awards. The No Drip Atomizing Nozzles are just a portion of the entire Liquid Atomizing Nozzle products that EXAIR Offers. The No-Drip’s patented liquid shut off valve design eliminates the need for a separate pilot air line to positively shut off liquid flow ensuring there are no drips or excess flow from the nozzle. These are ideal when dealing with fine surface finishes, costly liquids, or intermittent spraying needs. The nozzles are offered in both pressure fed liquid and siphon fed liquid versions.
For the pressure fed version, the nozzle will require both compressed air and a pressurized liquid source. Both pressures can be adjusted independently giving a large spectrum of adjustment to fine tune the spray pattern and droplet sizes. The siphon fed nozzles can draw liquid up to 36″ vertically or be gravity fed up to 18″ overhead. This makes installation quick and easy when a pressurized liquid source, or liquid pump is not at hand.
The No-Drip Atomizing Spray Nozzles have also proven themselves in many applications, you can even read about a few of them here on our blog, links below.
Some of the reasons the EXAIR No-Drip Atomizing Nozzles were selected for these applications are the patented no-drip valve, their ability to atomize liquids to a range of 22-71 micron droplet size, the ability to fit into a tight space as well as the many spray pattern options. These features have ranked the nozzles as a finalist in Flow Control’s 2016 Innovation Awards.
We are very grateful if you choose to vote for our nozzle at the link below. Please vote.
I had a customer contact me about the performance of his EXAIR Super Air Knives. They were painting panels using an electrophoretic process. This process uses an electrical voltage to put a charge on the steel panel for coating. As the parts get dipped, the oppositely charged coating is attracted to the surface. The parts then get rinsed before going into an oven to cross link and set the paint. They purchased two 48 inch (122 cm) long Super Air Knife Kits, model 110248, and he mounted one on each side of the steel panels to blow water off after the rinse cycle. The 46 inch (117 cm) long panels were attached to a rack hanging on an overhead conveying system. As the panels left the rinsing system, the Super Air Knives would blow the water off both sides. The customer saw some visual defects caused by water droplets and had concerns about the effectiveness of the Super Air Knife.
In these cases, we have to do some forensics to solve the problem. Usually poor performance is caused by undersized fittings, tubing, quick disconnects, improperly sized pneumatic accessories, and/or too small of an air compressor. As we went through the checklist, he did have the correct sized pipe, fittings, and compressed air requirements to operate the Super Air Knife properly.
E-Coat Painted Panel
I then went back to the basics in the setup of the Super Air Knife. I found out that he positioned the Super Air Knife to be perpendicular to the panels. With the air flow hitting the surface at a 90 degree angle, it was allowing the water to be splashed back onto the cleaned areas. I had a few suggestions to help improve the drying process.
Angle – EXAIR machined a chamfer on the cap of the Super Air Knife, and it can be used as a starting position for a mounting angle. The chamfer should be parallel with the target. This will create an air flow angle at about 45 degrees. This angle will increase the contact area and contact time which is very beneficial for removing water, debris and/or heat. See the below picture in showing the chamfer.
Super Air Knife Chamfer
Distance – For optimum performance, the Air Knife should be between 3 inches and 12 inches (76mm to 305mm) from the target. If you are too close, the amplification ratio is sacrificed, and the force is reduced. If you are too far, the air pattern will start to morph, and the velocity and force will begin to decrease. It can still work, but the efficiency is reduced.
Counter-Flow – The air flow should be blowing against the target, in a counter-flow direction. Example; if the parts are moving from left to right, you would want the Super Air Knife to blow from right to left. This will allow the contamination to be blown back away from the cleaned surfaces, and it will increase the impact force to remove contamination i.e. a head-on collision vs. a rear-end collision.
Many customers like to start with their Super Air Knives aiming directly at the target, as described in the above application. This can decrease the efficiency for blowing off contamination or removing heat. The diagram below shows how the angle can really help to improve the performance.
Poor Position Good Position
With these few simple steps in your installation, you can begin optimizing the performance of the EXAIR Super Air Knives. You can position the air knives to better suit your application. but with a good starting point, it can make it easier to maximize the product effectiveness.
