Category: Air Knife

Super Air Knife and Laminar Air Flow

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

What sets EXAIR’s Super Air Knife above the competition is the ability to maintain a consistent laminar flow across the full length of the knife, particularly when compared against blower-operated knives or even fans. A fan “slaps” the air, resulting in a turbulent airflow where the airflow particles are irregular and will interfere with each other. A laminar airflow, by contrast, will maintain smooth paths that will never interfere with one another.

Top: 108″ Super Air Knife is supported & aimed via an array of Model 9060 Universal Air Knife Mounting Systems. Bottom: mounting systems can be ‘overkill’ for some smaller applications, especially when the user is creative. Yes, those are door hinges. No, it wasn’t my idea, but I kind of wish it was.

The effectiveness of a laminar airflow vs turbulent airflow is particularly evident in the case of a cooling application. The chart below shows the time to cool computers to ambient temperatures for an automotive electronics manufacturer. They used a total of (32) 6” axial fans, (16) across the top and (16) across the bottom as the computers traveled along a conveyor. The computers needed to be cooled down before they could begin the testing process. By replacing the fans with just (3) Model 110012 Super Air Knives at a pressure of just 40 psig, the computers were cooled from 194 °F down to 81°F in just 90 seconds. The fans, even after 300 seconds, still couldn’t remove enough heat to allow the customer to test them.

Utilizing a laminar airflow is also critical when the airflow is being used to carry static-eliminating ions further to the surface. Static charges can be both positive or negative. In order to eliminate them, we need to deliver an ion of the opposite charge to neutralize it. Since opposite charges attract, having a product that produces a laminar airflow to carry the ions makes the static reduction dramatically more effective. As you can see from the graphic above showing a turbulent airflow pattern vs a laminar one, a turbulent airflow is going to cause these ions to come into contact with one another. This neutralizes them before they’re even delivered to the surface needing to be treated. With a product such as the Super Ion Air Knife, we’re using a laminar airflow pattern to deliver the positive and negative ions. Since the flow is laminar, the total quantity of ions that we’re able to deliver to the surface of the material remains greater. This allows the charge to be neutralized more quickly, rather than having to sit and “dwell” under the ionized airflow.

EXAIR Super Air Knives are the most efficient compressed air knife on the market, and for a limited time, you will receive a FREE Safety Air Gun when you purchase any EXAIR Super Air Knife! Learn more over on our site. (Until December 31, 2024)

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Saving Money with our Super Air Knives

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Here at EXAIR we are confident that there is a lot to gain from using our products. Two of the biggest benefits of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products are a reduction in noise, and a reduction in Compressed Air usage. The latter will often lead to big money savings. Many times the savings our products offer will pay for the product itself! What is my Return on Investment going to be?

So, how do you calculate your ROI? The easy answer is that you don’t have to! You can use our Air Savings Calculator to calculate your savings for you. If you know your current air consumption (in SCFM), the new air consumption (SCFM) and the cost of the product, our calculator will turn that into monetary savings, as well as the calculated payback time in days.

Another option if you would rather not do the calculations yourself, is that you can send the item in question to our Efficiency Lab Testing. The Efficiency Lab Testing is a free service that we offer to show you the possible savings by switching to one of our products. We will calculate the savings for you and send you the results of our findings.
The final option – my favorite by the way – is that we can do the math right here:

For a simple example, I’m going to show the ROI of replacing a drilled copper pipe with an EXAIR Super Air Knife for a blowoff application. The calculations will be as follows:

Copper Pipe (1/4”): 3x 3/32” diameter drilled holes uses 9.4scfm per hole (28.2scfm total) at 80psig.

3” Super Air Knife: uses 8.7scfm at 80psig

Calculation:

For the yearly consumption, we need to find how many minutes in a year the blowoff will be operated:

For the Copper Pipe:

For 3” Super Air Knife

The difference between these two:

At this point, if you know your facilities cost to generate 1,000scf, you can use that to calculate how much you would save. For this example, we will use $0.25 to generate 1,000scf, which is used by the U.S. Department of Energy to estimate costs. This gives the following yearly savings:

With an investment of $273.00 (at the time of publishing), you can calculate the time it would take to pay off the unit:

From these numbers you can see that after 117 days, the 3” Super Air Knife will have paid for itself.

As you can see, it doesn’t have to take long for the knife to pay for itself, and then continue to contribute toward your bottom line. 

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Banner image by Peter Fertig from Pixabay

Benefits of Entrainment in EXAIR’s Products

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

One word I don’t think I ever used before I started working at EXAIR is entrainment. It was not a concept that I had ever needed to think about or discuss. But now, having worked here for a short while, it is a topic that I discuss regularly – daily even. Many of EXAIR’s quiet and efficient compressed air products are designed to maximize air entrainment.

Entrainment is defined in the simplest of terms as: to draw in and transport (something, such as solid particles or gas) by the flow of a fluid. In the context of EXAIR’s compressed air products, the surrounding ambient air is entrained by the primary air flow created by the compressed air.

For example, when compressed air exits the precise slotted nozzle of our Super Air Knife, a low pressure area is induced, which speeds up and draws in ambient air. This air entrainment (at a ratio of 40:1) is what makes our Super Air Knives so efficient. This same effect is true for our Super Air Amplifiers, Super Air Nozzles, Super Air Wipes, as well as many other products.

This effect was first described by Daniel Bernoulli in his book Hydrodynamica, where he first explained what we know as Bernoulli’s Principle. His principle states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure. This is derived from the conservation of energy, where an increase in kinetic energy (speed) requires a corresponding reduction in potential energy (pressure).

Daniel Bernoulli was an interesting man, who we have written several blogs about, like this one here. But in summary, the work he did in the 1700s is fundamental to our products. If you would like to discuss your application, and how the Bernoulli Principle may be beneficial, feel free to give us a call!

Al Wooffitt

Application Engineer

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EXAIR Super Air Knife Promotion

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Starting in November through the end of the month, order any EXAIR Super Air Knife and receive a free 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun. This applies to all stock Super Air Knifes. The Model 1210 is a top pick for many industrial applications. With the ideal combination of forceful air flow, quite noise level, and compressed air usage there’s not many applications that aren’t suited for this style of gun. All EXAIR’s Safety Air Guns are compliant with OSHA 1910.242 (b), relating to dead-end pressure, and can keep your personnel safe. 

EXAIR has been manufacturing Intelligent Compressed Air® products since 1983.  In the beginning, the Standard Air Knives and Full Flow Air Knives were very effective at that time.  But as leaders in this industry, EXAIR did not want to stop there.  We were able to engineer a more efficient, more powerful, and much quieter air knife, the Super Air Knife.  In this blog, I will discuss the features and benefits that the Super Air Knives can offer.

Bernoulli’s principle explains how a high velocity fluid can generate a low pressure.  The EXAIR Super Air Knife creates a high velocity air stream to produce that low pressure to entrain ambient air.   What does this mean for you?  It will save you money by using less compressed air.  The mass of the ambient air is added to the compressed air stream to give it a strong blowing force.  The Super Air Knife has an amplification ratio of 40:1, which means that for every 1 part of compressed air, 40 parts of ambient air are drawn into the air stream.  Ambient air is free. Compressed air is expensive.  EXAIR was able to engineer a design to use Bernoulli’s principle to make one of the most efficient air knives in the marketplace.

What else makes EXAIR unchallenged?  We manufacture and stock the widest range of lengths and materials.  To start, EXAIR has Super Air Knives ranging from 3” to 108” (76 mm to 2,743 mm) in three different materials; aluminum, 303 stainless steel, and 316/316L stainless steel.  EXAIR also offers Super Air Knives in PVDF material with Hastelloy hardware for chemical resistant applications from 3” to 54” (76 mm to 1,372 mm).  Depending on the temperature requirement, chemical resistance, OSHA and FDA regulations, or application details, we probably will have one on the shelf for you.  If EXAIR does not have it, we can make special air knives in different lengths and materials to best fit your application.  You can read more about specials HERE. 


Air Knives are available in Super, Standard and Full-Flow styles, and all versions are able to be customized to a customer’s specific needs. For help solving any specific blowoff problems, please contact an Application Engineer. All Air Knives are CE compliant.

With today’s cost of making compressed air, it is important to use it as efficiently as possible.  The Standard and Full Flow Air Knives would be good options to use.  But the best way to conserve is with the Super Air Knife.  In the U.S. and Canada, EXAIR offers a 30-day unconditional guarantee on our cataloged items, so you can try them out.  You can see for yourself how effective these compressed air guns can be.  If you have any questions about the Super Air Knife or if you would like to discuss an application, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.   We will be glad to help you.  And until December 31st, 2024, EXAIR is offering a free Soft Grip Safety Air Gun, a $115.00 value, as a complimentary gift for qualifying online Super Air Knife purchases. 

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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