Generally, when we’re talking about a Line Vac application it involves the transfer of bulk materials from one place or another. Most applications involve replacing what we call a “bucket and ladder” operation. An operator must fill a bucket or container with the material, climb up a ladder, and then deposit it into a hopper.
One such common application we’ve handled rather frequently, is conveying raw (green) coffee beans from a bulk sack or container up into a hopper for roasting. We’ve worked with large well-known manufacturers, as well as small mom-and-pop type roasters out in Hawaii. To help facilitate this, my colleague John Ball and I shot a quick video with some raw beans we had lying around from a prior customer test:
Line Vacs don’t need to be just about conveying bulk material into a hopper. We’ve seen the Line Vac used to strip any remaining wire or yarn off of a remaining spool for reuse. They’ve also been used by electrical contractors to run wire through underground conduit:
EXAIR offers Line Vacs with different connection styles as well to accommodate different methods of material transfer. The applications above utilized our smooth Line Vacs that are designed to be used with smooth-bore hose or tube. The Threaded Line Vac is offered with NPT threaded connections on the inlet and outlet for use with rigid pipe. For customers operating in the food or pharmaceutical industry, we offer Line Vacs in 316 SS in threaded, smooth, or solely in 316 SS with our Sanitary Flange Line Vac.
The Sanitary Flange Line Vac incorporates ISO 2852 compatible flanges on both the intake and outlet of the Line Vac. In the food/pharmaceutical industries, these types of connection styles are common to allow for easy removal of the system for sanitization purposes. An application I worked on recently involved a customer in the Food & Beverage industry that needed a solution for transporting bulk bags of salt. They’d looked at a high capacity conveyor system to serve this need, only to find out that it cost nearly 10x that of the Sanitary Flange Line Vac. The Model 161200-316 was used to convey this salt easily for them without the need to purchase a large and complicated system. The Line Vac has absolutely no moving parts to wear out and is maintenance-free, so it not only saved them money in purchase price but in subsequent maintenance costs down the line as well.
Heavy Duty Line Vacs operate in the same manner as our standard or threaded units, but are constructed of a hardened alloy steel engineered for use with abrasive media. The Heavy Duty Line Vacs are offered with both smooth or threaded connection styles and also provide a boost in conveyance when compared with our other Line Vacs. The Heavy Duty Line Vacs are ideal for any media that is abrasive in nature or for applications requiring higher conveyance rates over longer distances
If you believe you have a solution in your facility for any of our Line Vacs, act FAST! The promotion is running now through October 31st that includes a FREE 2″ Flat Super Air Nozzle.
Tyler Daniel, CCASS
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD