Hydrochloric Acid. Sodium Hydroxide. Nitric Acid. Hydrogen Peroxide. Whether you know it or not, these are all commonly used around the house as tile/grout cleaners, drain openers, lawn fertilizers, and disinfectant for cut & scrapes, respectively.

They’re also used in a variety of industrial applications, such as the making of plastics, glass, pharmaceuticals, and wastewater treatment, respectively…all of which also have applications for which EXAIR Corporation’s Intelligent Compressed Air Products provide safe, efficient, and quiet solutions for.

Consider the Super Air Knife: If you need one that’ll stand up to contact with hydrochloric acid, you’re looking for PVDF construction. Nitric acid is a different story – our 303SS, 316SS construction Super Air Knives are well suited for those applications.

On the other end of the (pH) spectrum, any of those materials are suitable for exposure to Sodium Hydroxide. PVDF is still the best choice, as the Stainless Steels will be subject to discoloration or slight corrosion, depending on the concentration.

Acids and bases aside, oxidizers are also very corrosive, especially in higher concentrations.  Hydrogen peroxide is a commonly used oxidizer in industries as diverse as pulp & paper, soap & detergent, and water sterilization.  Like other chemicals, compatibility depends on the concentration, but like nitric acid & sodium hydroxide, our PVDF Super Air Knives are still the best, but the Stainless Steel models are still acceptable.

These are just a few, very basic, examples of chemical compatibility.  If you have an application that calls for installing one of our compressed air products in an area where you’re concerned about corrosion, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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