A manufacturing company in Ohio altered their production process to start making face masks for the COVID-19 pandemic. It was important for them to change their machines over quickly to start making Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE. As their operation began to produce many masks, they needed a way to extract the face masks from their cutting machine. They contacted EXAIR as we are known for safe, efficient, problem solving products with high quality standards that are in stock and ready to ship to our customers.
At the end of the production line, the face masks went through an inspection/cutting machine. The individual masks would be moved into two carts that were roughly 6 feet (1.8 meters) away. One cart was for good product while the other cart was for noncompliant product. The masks were roughly 6” (15cm) wide by 4” (10cm) high. As the masks went through the inspection machine, they needed a way to move flagged masks to the nonconforming bin and the approved masks to a separate cart for packaging.
EXAIR manufactures Air Operated Conveyors to move product from one place to the another. For short distance and light materials, EXAIR has the Light Duty Line Vac for conveying. This was perfect for the company above. The Light Duty Line Vac are made to use a range from ¾” (19mm) to 6” (152mm) diameter hoses for conveying. They use less compressed air than the more powerful cousins like the Heavy Duty Line Vacs and the standard Line Vacs. They are compact and simple to use. They have a two-piece design and they do not have any moving parts or motors to wear. For the application above, I recommended the model 130600 – 6” Light Duty Line Vac. They were large enough to move the face masks at the speeds that they were producing.
One benefit in calling EXAIR was that we had these in stock and ready to go. They purchased two units for their operation. They shared some other details about their operation. Since the Light Duty Line Vacs only use compressed air to work and can move product quickly, they connected a solenoid valve to each Light Duty Line Vac. When the mask was inspected, the machine would trigger the appropriate solenoid valve to move the face masks to either the “good” bin or to the “bad” bin.
EXAIR manufactures a large variety of Air Operated Conveyors to move light materials like face masks up to heavier materials like steel shot. And, if you need a quick unit to change or update your system, EXAIR stocks many of these in different sizes and types. For the customer above, we shipped that same day in order for them to finish their change to start making PPE. And for U.S. and Canadian customers, EXAIR offers a 30-day unconditional guarantee to try these units. If you need to move product from point A to point B, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR to discuss. We will be happy to help you; even during this pandemic.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb
Photo: Face Mask by leo2014. Pixabay License