Author: Kirk Edwards

Director of Sales & Marketing at EXAIR Corporation.

Air Savings at a Bakery

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A major national bakery has begun an air savings program and has successfully proven air savings by installing EXAIR’s Super Air Knives in the place of pipe with drilled holes. That success has led to other areas of the bakery which could benefit from retrofitting homemade blow offs with engineered compressed air products.

The latest situation was a de-panning application; a spot in production where the baked goods were loosened from the baking pan with a jet of air prior to getting dumped on to a belt.

The old setup had ten 3/8 schedule 40 pipes capped off, with a 9/64″ hole drilled in each pipe. An estimated air consumption of 22 SCFM based on their air pressure. EXAIR retrofitted the application with ten Model 1100 Super Air Nozzles which require only 14 SCFM each at 80 PSIG. A savings of 8 SCFM per nozzle totals 80 SCFM. That is approximately 20 Hp horsepower of compressed air saved with one retrofit!

The benefits of EXAIR’s products continue to encourage customers to find areas which can be improved and money saved. Many times, such as this example, the retrofit is very simple. The customer only needed a 3/8 FNPT x 1/4 MNPT adapter and the job was done.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Rely on EXAIR to Recognize the Details

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Our customer called with a Line Vac product in mind. He wanted to use the 2-1/2″ Aluminum Line Vac to move his perlite material 50′. He was going to use a 10 Hp compressor which he had sitting idle in another portion of his facility. He only needed to move the perlite one time and the time it took him was not critical.

EXAIR recognized that the 2-1/2″ Line Vac was not the best suited for his application because it used more air than he had available with his compressor. We discussed and decided to go with the 2″ Line Vac. We recognized this because of our knowledge of the compressed air industry.  One of our goals is to realize the customer’s air capacity and recommend a product which will work with the capacity.

We continued to discuss how much perlite he would like to move, and it was an amount so large he expected to move it over the course of the next couple of months. The volume he wanted to move would have worn through two or three aluminum Line Vacs, so we recommended a stainless steel model for abrasion resistance. We recognized this because of our employees with decades of experience.  Another goal of ours is to recommend the best product material for a specific application.

EXAIR also recognizes the importance of getting a complete system from one vendor. The time it would take to source a compressed air filter/regulator and some transfer hose, in this example, will cost more time and money than purchasing all of the necessary pieces directly from EXAIR. We have recognized this and provide our customers with all the necessary components for compressed air products. This includes filter separators, pressure regulators, oil removal filters, transfer hose, mounting options, positioning products and more.

After our customer had decided to purchase a Line Vac kit and hose they also requested an e-mail which included the credit card invoice and tracking number which we readily and quickly provided. We recognize these details make for a smooth transaction for our customers.

Every customer has different details which make a difference to them; EXAIR is very good at recognizing what these details are and provides them.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Vortex Tube Cools Gel and Seals Vial

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Gel is dispensed into a 5 mL vial at 40C, a temperature which keeps the gel in a liquid state. The temperature at which this gel will thicken and set up is 38C.

A large agricultural company who manufactures weed control chemicals was dispensing this gel into the vials. They needed a solution to cool at least the top of the gel to form a seal in the vial and keep the gel from spilling out after the vials are tossed into a bulk hopper.

A Vortex Tube provided a quick blast of cold air at -1C to remove the heat necessary to set the gel and create the plug to hold the gel within the vial.

This application was a new one for me, typically we are setting hot melt glue, cooling ultrasonic weld horns, heat seals, or gas sample through analyzers. It is always good to speak with someone about an application I have not experienced before and be able to provide a solution.

This application was successful because we had a couple of seconds exposed to the vials while the fill machine indexed and we could blow directly in to the vial and on the gel to quickly set it up.

Kirk Edwards, Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Separate Sheet Stock with Super Ion Air Knife

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A customer of ours who built an assembly line for 48″ x 96″ corrugated plastic sheet was having a problem with the stack of plastic sheet on the lift table. The sheets were set in a stack on the lift table, removed from the stack with suction cups and moved to a die cutting machine to manufacture boxes.

When the sheets were lifted by the suction cups, more than one sheet was lifted from the stack due to a static charge in between the sheets. You may not know that static can only be neutralized by exposing the static charge directly to some kind of static eliminating product or air flow. In this case the static elimination air needed to reach in between the sheets.

Another problem with the application was the strength of the static charge. This charge was very high and holding the sheets together tightly. For this reason we recommended three model 1122 2″ Super Air Nozzles across the 48″ edge of the sheet. These nozzles had enough force to create a gap in between the sheets.

After the gap was created an EXAIR Super Ion Air Knife could reach the static charge and begin to peel the bottom sheet from the top as the suction cups lifted the sheets.

Sometimes a combination of product can provide the best solution.

Kirk Edwards, EXAIR Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com