A manufacturing plant EXAIR worked with made cast aluminum tubes for the automotive industry. After the parts were cast, a machining operation would clean the ends. This left coolant and metal shavings inside the tube. Before going to assembly, they had to clean the part. They created a two-tube fixture (reference picture above) to fit the 25mm tubes in place.
Two home-made nozzles were used to fit inside the tubes to blow compressed air. The nozzles were attached to the ends of two 17mm pipes which supplied the compressed air. A cylinder was used to push the nozzles from the top of the aluminum tube to the bottom then back up again. The liquid emulsion and debris would be pushed downward into a collection drum. When they started operating their system, the inside of the tubes still had contamination inside. They wanted to improve their process, so they looked for an expert in nozzle designs, EXAIR.
EXAIR designed and manufactures a nozzle for just this type of operation, the Back Blow Air Nozzles. We offer three different sizes to fit inside a wide variety of diameters from ¼” (6.3mm) to 16” (406mm). They are designed to clean tubing, pipes, hoses, and channels. The 360o rear airflow pattern can “wipe” the entire internal surface from coolant, chips, and debris. For the application above, I recommended the model 1006SS Back Blow Air Nozzle. This 316SS robust design would fit inside the tubes above. The range for this Back Blow Air Nozzle is from 7/8” (22mm) to 4” (102mm) diameters. The customer did have to modify the function of the equipment by placing the cylinder and the rods under the aluminum tubes. The reverse airflow would still push the contamination into the collection drum that was placed underneath the tubes.
After installing the model 1006SS onto the rods, the cleaning operation became more efficient. Not only was the entire internal diameter getting clean, they were able to turn off the compressed air until they reached the top of the tube. With the model 1006SS, they only needed one pass to clean. This cut the air consumption in half, saving them much money by using less compressed air. In addition, they were able to speed up their operation by 20%. Cleaner tubes, less time, cost savings; they were happy that they contacted EXAIR for our expertise.
If you need to clean the inside of tubes, hoses, pipes, etc., EXAIR has the perfect nozzle for you, the Back Blow Air Nozzles. EXAIR can also offer these nozzles on our VariBlast, Soft Grip and Heavy Duty Air Guns for manual operations. They come with Chip Shields and extensions that can reach as far as 72” (1829mm). Or like the customer above, automate the system to get a great non-contact cleaning.
If you require any more details, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR. We will be happy to help.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb