I actually came up with a few more reasons, but I’d already told the boss I was writing a “Top 10” blog, so here we go:

1. Cost of ownership. Several factors have to be considered here:

• Purchase price. If you have compressed air available, the Super Air Knife is going to win this one all day, every day. The cost of the rotary element alone of a blower system will eclipse the cost of any Super Air Knife.
• Maintenance. A Super Air Knife has no moving parts. If you supply it with clean air, it’ll run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free. This means the only preventive maintenance required is to periodically replace the element in the filter. Blowers, on the other hand, have a number of moving parts; non-sealed bearings require periodic lubrication. Sealed bearings require periodic replacement. Couplings, drive belts & pulleys need to be kept in proper alignment, or you’ll be replacing those bearings at even more frequent intervals. Even if you do keep up with stringent planned maintenance, the fact that they’re moving parts means that bearings will seize, seals will fail, belts will break, motor windings will burn out…and then you’re going to lose production in whatever process the blower is supporting.
• Operating cost. The electric cost associated with operating a blower motor can indeed be lower than the operating cost of an air compressor. When you consider factors like being able to start & stop compressed air flow to Super Air Knives instantly and on demand (as opposed to a continuously running blower motor) and the ability to regulate supply pressure (instead of needing a variable frequency drive on the blower motor to vary the flow & force of the air), it’s entirely likely that engineered compressed air products can be less expensive to operate.

2. Ease of installation. Rotating equipment, like centrifugal & regenerative blowers, have to be mounted on a suitable surface in such a way as to prevent vibration (or you’ll be doing a LOT of the aforementioned repairs). This usually involves specialized contractors, and a fair amount of time, especially if reinforcing and/or grouting the floor space is required. Installation of most Super Air Knives involves a handful of very common 1/4″-20 hardware and a compressed air hose. If you know how to use an open end wrench, you can likely install a Super Air Knife in just a few minutes. For added ease of installation, we’ve got Plumbing Kits and Mounting Systems too.

3. Small, compact footprint. If you don’t have the floor space for the blower near the point of use, you might have to install it where you DO have space and run air ducts to where you want the air to blow. The installation space required for a Super Air Knife is no more than its length, and a profile envelope of 1.75″ (45mm) X 1.44″ (37mm). Stainless Steel models are even a little smaller in profile – 1.44″ (37mm) X 1.03″ (26mm) – and if the mounting space is tighter than that, Standard & Full Flow Air Knives have a smaller profile.

4. Sound levels. Blower motors make noise. If the blower is belt driven, THAT makes noise. The air flow discharging from the blower’s air knife makes noise, and when that turbulent flow hits the surface of what you’re blowing on, that can make quite a racket too. The only sound associated with a Super Air Knife is the sound of the air flow, which is mitigated by a low velocity boundary layer, developed by the entrained air. Ignoring any impingement sound, the sound level of any Super Air Knife supplied @80psig is only 69dBA. That’s well under typical ambient noise level in many industrial settings.

5. Operational control. As I mentioned above under “Operating Cost”, engineered compressed air products like a Super Air Knife can be turned on and off as frequently – or as seldom – as the application requires. In fact, that’s one of our Six Steps To Optimize Your Compressed Air System. Blower-type products can certainly be turned off when you shut down for the evening or the weekend, but (and not to sound like a broken record here), if you cycle a blower’s motor on & off frequently, you’ll be doing a LOT more repair work than if you just let it run & accept the operating cost as an unavoidable expense.

6. Operational control part 2. I touched on this one under “Operating Cost” too, but in addition to limiting what you spend on running it, you can also precisely ‘dial in’ the performance you need with a Pressure Regulator. That keeps you from blowing small or lightweight objects all over the place if it only takes a moderate breeze, or even just a whisper, of air flow to do the job.

7. Even, laminar flow. When a blade rotates, it “slaps” the air to impart motion. This causes turbulence, which means that the air flow from most blower systems really just beats on the surface of what you’re blowing off. The flow from an engineered product like a Super Air Knife is laminar by design, which makes for a stripping or sweeping action across the surface, which is more efficient for blowing. The air curtain from a Super Air Knife is also pretty even in velocity & force from end to end, so there’s no extra length jutting out on either end.

8. Reliability. I mentioned this under “Maintenance” above, but the fact that the Super Air Knife has no moving parts makes it an incredibly reliable product. The primary causes of failure are really limited to a casualty with the air compressor, or catastrophic damage to the Air Knife itself.

9. Higher force. Because a blower is imparting discharge head to the air supply going to the air knife, it can generate a lot of volume (depending on the diameter of the rotating element) and velocity (depending on the speed of rotation), but they’re limited in the amount of force that the discharged air can apply to a surface. Because they’re fed with PRESSURIZED air, Super Air Knives are capable of generating a tremendous amount of force by discharging that air out of the 0.002″ thick gap between the cap & body, you can put a thicker shim (they come in 0.001″, 0.002″, 0.003″, and 0.004″ thicknesses) in and get a proportional increase in the force applied.

10. Free stuff. If all of that isn’t enough, we’ve got a seasonal promotion running RIGHT NOW, through December 31, 2023. With any qualifying Super Air Knife purchase, you’ll get a free Soft Grip Safety Air Gun with a Super Air Nozzle. It’s our way of thanking you for trying a Super Air Knife, and a chance to show off our most popular handheld blow off product. If you use air guns, we’re pretty sure you’re going to like this one, a lot.

The EXAIR Super Air Knife is, for any given size, the most efficient and quietest compressed air blowing product on the market. If you’d like to find out which one is right for your application, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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