Oh man, I never thought the day would come when I realize just how old I am getting. When I was 17, I drastically modified my car stereo system. Like many people in the custom car audio scene, it was never loud enough for me. At one point I had shifted one of the windows enough during a sound competition that I had a fixed window that would leak water from then on. I also used to have a sticker that said, if it’s too loud, you’re too old. I produced a sustained sound level of 149.2 dBA inside the car with the windows up. There are still days when certain songs or hearing another loud stereo make me reminisce about my old stereo. Then again, having a car that doesn’t leak water when it rains is way nicer. I also now realize just how loud 149.2 dBA is and have more than once asked my daughters to turn the TV down because it is, you guessed it, TOO LOUD!

So why does turning the sound level down matter, and what can you do in an industrial setting to turn it down? Evaluating compressed air blowoffs is one point that EXAIR has tools to help with and solutions as well. There are several methods to reduce the sound produced by a blowoff. First, if it is not an engineered blowoff, install an engineered blowoff, open pipes and crossed drilled holes are not engineered solutions and often do not meet either the OSHA Standard for dead-end pressure or allowable noise level exposure. So, to remedy this, contact an Application Engineer and let us help you determine an engineered solution for the need.

Secondly, when looking at compressed air blowoffs, determine the minimum operating pressure to successfully complete the task and turn the pressure down. By reducing the operating pressure you remove energy from the task and this will reduce both air consumption and noise level produced by the blowoff. It is very easy to add capacity for work back into an established compressed air system by reducing operating pressures for applications that are operating in excess. This can be done easily by installing items such as pressure regulators at point-of-use locations. Our Application Engineering team is here to also help you determine what size regulator best fits your needs as well.

Lastly, if the compressed air blowoff is on continuously and does not need to be, don’t just turn it down, turn it off. This is easily done by adding in an Electronic Flow Control which will sense when a part is present or not present to turn the compressed air on and off. Again, to discuss what an Electronic Flow Control can do for your application, we have an entire team of Application Engineers here.

In the end, I am not getting any younger and it turns out that things like hearing can’t be replaced, so take care of your hearing and your team members’ hearing by using engineered blowoffs, reducing operating pressures, turning it off when not in use, and always ensure you follow the proper PPE guidelines. If you want to discuss any point of using a compressed air application, contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF