Author: Tyler Daniel

The Right Tool for Drying, Cleaning, and Cooling Continuous Material

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

If you’ve ever tried to dry or clean a continuous length of pipe, wire, or hose using a handful of nozzles pointed at it from different angles, you already know the problem. You’re always going to miss a spot. It doesn’t matter how many nozzles you throw at it or how you arrange them, getting full 360° coverage on a moving product with open-ended blow offs is a losing battle. That’s exactly the problem the Super Air Wipe was built to solve.

The Super Air Wipe is a close relative of our Super Air Knife, and it works on the same principle. A Coanda profile entrains large amounts of ambient air to amplify the compressed air supply and deliver a high-velocity, laminar airflow across the entire target. The difference is the geometry. Where the Super Air Knife delivers a flat curtain of air, the Super Air Wipe delivers a uniform 360° ring of laminar airflow directed inward at a consistent angle. The result is complete, gap-free coverage on pipe, cable, hose, wire, and extruded shapes as they pass through the center of the unit.

Split ring design eliminates the need for product “threading” through the Air Wipe.

One of the most practical features is the split design. The Super Air Wipe opens up like a clamshell, allowing you to clamp it directly around a continuous run of material without having to thread anything through. That means no line stoppages for installation, no re-threading when you switch over to a different product diameter, and no downtime when maintenance requires you to pull the unit for inspection. You just unlatch, remove, reinstall, and go.

The aluminum Super Air Wipe is available from stock in sizes ranging from 3/8″ all the way up to 11″ inside diameter, covering a wide range of pipes, tube, and hose diameters. All units include stainless steel hardware and stainless steel shims. For sizes up to 4″, a brass tee and a stainless steel wire braided hose are included to supply each half of the unit independently, which is important for maintaining even airflow around the full circumference. For sizes over 4″, each 1/4 NPT compressed air inlet should be piped directly from the supply line to ensure both halves receive equal pressure.

For applications involving corrosive environments or elevated temperatures, the Super Air Wipe is also available in 303 stainless steel construction. The stainless steel version handles temperatures up to 800°F, making it a solid option for positioning close to an extrusion die or in areas where chemical exposure would deteriorate aluminum over time. The stainless steel Super Air Wipe is available in sizes from 1/2″ to 4″ and ships from stock.

Like the Super Air Knife, the Super Air Wipe has 1/4-20 tapped holes along the downstream side for hard mounting. For smaller sizes, rigid compressed air supply pipe can double as structural support, eliminating the need for a separate mounting bracket altogether. Airflow and force can be tuned two ways, through shim sets for gross adjustments to the air gap, or through a pressure regulator for real-time fine-tuning. Kits are available that bundle the Super Air Wipe with a shim set, a pressure regulator, and an auto-drain filter to keep the supply air clean and dry. Increasing input pressure increases both force and flow from the unit, so if line speed changes, you’re not reworking the installation, you’re just turning a knob. For operations running different product sizes or materials across shifts, that flexibility matters.

One of the most straightforward uses for the Super Air Wipe is drying extruded PVC pipe after it exits the cooling tank. At that point in the process, the pipe is wet and moving continuously toward a printer or saw. Positioning a Super Air Wipe immediately after the water bath and before the downstream equipment ensures the surface is dry before it reaches the inkjet coder or the cutoff. Manual wiping at line speed is unreliable, and open nozzles leave gaps. The Super Air Wipe handles it consistently, every time.

If you’re processing any type of hose, wire, cable, or extruded profile that could benefit from a reliable blow off, drying, or cleaning solution, give us a call.

Tyler Daniel

Assistant Application Engineering Manager

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Automated Drying For Pipe, Tube, and Extruded Shapes

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

The challenge with drying or cleaning a continuous pipe or tube is that air has to reach the entire circumference simultaneously. Standard nozzles or simple air rings often leave “dead spots” where moisture or debris can hide, leading to quality failures in downstream processes like ink jet coding or packaging. The Super Air Wipe solves this by generating a high-velocity, 360-degree laminar air curtain. As the pipe or tube passes through the center of the wipe, the air strips the surface clean without any gaps in coverage.

In many pipe and hose operations, the biggest bottleneck is the inability to break the line for maintenance or setup. Because the Super Air Wipe features a split design, it can be unlatched and clamped around the pipe at any point. You do not have to feed the material through the center, which means no downtime when a new roll is started or a different section of the line needs a blow off station.

For tubes ranging from 3/8 inch up to 11 inches, the Super Air Wipe provides a concentrated blast that moves with the material. On a PVC line, for example, the air wipe can be positioned immediately after the cooling tank. By stripping the water off the pipe at high speed, you ensure the surface is bone dry before it hits the printer or the saw. This level of consistency is impossible to achieve with manual wiping or haphazard nozzle arrangements.

Control is straightforward. By using a pressure regulator, you can dial the force up or down based on the line speed. If you are running a heavy gauge pipe at low speed, you can drop the pressure to save air. If the line speeds up, you increase the pressure to maintain the same drying efficiency. This flexibility ensures you are only using the compressed air required for that specific run.

For those working in high-temperature extrusion or corrosive environments, the 303 Stainless Steel models are the standard choice. They handle temperatures up to 800°F, allowing you to position the wipe closer to the die where the material is at its hottest. This prevents debris from baking onto the surface and ensures a cleaner finish. Whether you are dealing with cutting fluid on machined tubing or water on an extrusion line, the Super Air Wipe provides a repeatable, 360-degree solution that manual methods simply cannot match.

Tyler Daniel

Assistant Application Engineering Manager

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

The ROI of Engineered Air: Why Your Compressed Air Setup Is Costing You More Than It Should

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

The electrical costs associated with generating compressed air make it the most expensive utility in any industrial facility. In order to help offset these costs, it’s imperative that the system is operating as efficiently as possible. Taking a holistic look at your system, from the distribution piping down to the individual nozzle, reveals several opportunities to reduce your energy footprint without sacrificing performance.

The first and most impactful step is to identify and fix leaks within the distribution piping. According to the Compressed Air Challenge, up to 30% of all compressed air generated is lost through leaks, which can account for nearly 10% of your overall energy costs. These leaks do more than just waste money; they cause a drop in system pressure that forces equipment to cycle on and off more frequently. This leads to rejected products, increased maintenance, and unscheduled downtime. You can perform a professional audit using an EXAIR Model 9207 Ultrasonic Leak Detector to pinpoint these losses or hire an energy audit service to lead the process.

Pressure Regulators “dial in” performance to get the job done without using more air than necessary.

While fixing leaks addresses the distribution side, you must also look at how that air is managed at the point of use. Regulating the supply pressure for individual devices is a massive opportunity for savings. Most shop air runs at a default 80-90 PSIG or higher, but many general blowoff applications can be accomplished with the same level of efficiency at 50 or 60 PSIG. By installing pressure regulators at each device, you reduce consumption immediately. For every 2 PSIG you reduce at the compressor, you save approximately 1% in energy costs.

Drilled and soldered copper pipe.

The hardware you choose for these applications is equally critical. Inefficient, homemade solutions like crimped copper tubes are often thought to be cheap, but the cost to supply them with air far outweighs the price of an engineered solution. An engineered nozzle, such as EXAIR’s line of Super Air Nozzles, utilizes the Coanda effect to entrain free ambient air into the stream. This maximizes force while keeping compressed air usage to an absolute minimum.

Finally, the overall health and operation of the system rely on consistent maintenance and simple human intervention. Inadequate compressor maintenance leads to lower efficiency and higher heat, so a regular preventative schedule for heat exchangers, lubricants, and filters is non-negotiable. Beyond mechanical upkeep, the simplest method to save is to shut off the air when it isn’t in use. Whether operators are on lunch or a shift has ended, simply turning a valve to stop the supply of air is a no-brainer that prevents leaks from wasting power during downtime. Each of these steps, while minute on their own, works together to significantly reduce your overall air consumption and energy costs.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Assistant Application Engineering Manager

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Axial vs. Deflector: Which BETE Fan Nozzle Really Makes the Cut?

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Since BETE became part of the EXAIR family back in 2024, we’ve been able to offer a much deeper bench of spray technology to solve the more complex fluid delivery problems our customers face. When you need precision in a spray process, choosing the right pattern is just as critical as the fluid you’re pumping. Fan nozzles are the go-to when you need a flat sheet of liquid with a specific impact. Whether you’re washing down a conveyor or applying a thin coating to a part, the goal is uniform distribution and, often, high force.

There are two primary ways these fan patterns are created: axial and deflector. With an axial fan nozzle, the liquid exits through an orifice and naturally widens into a flat spray. These are great for general cleaning and washing because they provide a tapered edge. This is perfect for overlapping multiple nozzles on a header to get seamless, uniform coverage across a wide area without any “light” spots between nozzles.

Then you have deflector-style nozzles. In this design, the fluid hits an external surface after exiting the orifice, which “peels” the liquid into an extra-wide fan. Because the fluid is deflected, these nozzles can achieve a much higher impact at lower flow rates, making them ideal for heavy-duty scrubbing, rinsing, or suppressing dust.

We see these used across a ton of different industries because of that versatility. In food and beverage, they’re a staple for bottle and container washing. In the steel industry, you’ll find them cooling down rolls or applying lubricants. They even play a huge role in fire protection, specifically in deluge systems where you need to move a lot of water quickly and accurately.

The main takeaway is that fan nozzles are the best choice whenever you have relative motion between the nozzle and the target. If you have a product moving down a line that needs to be wetted, coated, or cleaned, a fan pattern is likely the most efficient way to get it done.

Between EXAIR’s compressed air expertise and BETE’s industrial spray nozzle catalog, we can help you spec out the right nozzle for the job. Give us a call and we’ll walk through the flow rates and spray angles your application requires.

Tyler Daniel

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com