A manufacturer of automotive power transmission shafts was experiencing frequent failure of high pressure plastic rollers on their spin tester.  There are four rollers in a 90° array that center the shaft during spin testing.  They exert a pressure of around 1,500psi onto the shaft while it’s rotating at 1,000rpm.  This generates enough heat to actually melt the rubber coating on rollers, which means stopping testing (which holds up production) while they change out the rollers.  Just for it to start all over again.

This, of course, was an ideal application for a Vortex Tube cooling solution.  They wanted to aim the cold air flow from the dual points of two Model 3925 Adjustable Spot Cooler Systems at four points of the shaft, right where it starts to contact the rollers.

Thing was, they wanted to mount the Adjustable Spot Coolers where they could have access to the Temperature Control Valve, but the cold air Hose Kit wouldn’t reach the shaft.  So they got a couple of extra sections of the cold air hose…they needed one section of the ‘main’ (shown circled in blue, below) to reach into the test rig’s shroud, and two sections of the ‘branch’ (circled in green) to reach to each roller.

Now, adding too much hose length will start to put line loss on the cold air flow, and it will pick up heat from the environment.  But if you just need that extra foot of hose to get the job done, this generally works just fine.  The extra foot or so they’ve added (5″ to the main and 6″ to each branch) has solved their problem…they haven’t had to replace a roller since the Adjustable Spot Cooler Systems were installed.

If you’d like to find out more about how EXAIR Vortex Tubes & Spot Cooling Products can prevent heat damage in your operation, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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