Category: Air Wipe

Square Peg And A Round Hole

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

We all remember the box with different shapes that toddlers play with to eventually learn shape names. Well, this also teaches some other things like fine motor skills and for some, how to work around the challenge altogether. Here at EXAIR, we like to use our products to help build skills and enable our customers to navigate the challenges at hand. Sometimes, that means fitting a square peg in a round hole.

That’s right, while we all like to think of the Super Air Wipe as a product that is only used with round wire, cable, bar, tubing, or extrusion that is round, that is not the case. Now, I know what you might be thinking, that’s a waste or how can you fit that shape. Well, the Super Air Wipes from EXAIR are offered in 11 sizes from stock in aluminum construction and 5 in stock from stainless steel. (In stock for us means they ship same day on orders received by 2:00 PM ET.) The reason we don’t only use these for round objects is the fact that once the air hits a surface it follows that surface.

The Super Air Wipes have a converging airflow and as long as the profile being passed through fits through the inner diameter and does not have undercuts then the air should attach to the surface and travel upstream of the SAW location and blow off the moisture, debris, or cool the material being fed through. This pattern of air will converge 360° to the wipe. So if the extrusion being passed through is a square shape, then the air will hit each flat, and where the corners are that air will simply combine and continue upstream.

Throughout the years I have even helped customers to use only half of a Super Air Wipe to cool or clean a part as it rides down a conveyor and use half of the wipe as a gate for the part to pass through. Another common application is to use the Super Air Wipe to protect lenses for things like measurement systems or cameras. This can be done by installing the Super Air Wipe in front of the camera or lens and blowing the air stream out away from the lens. Again, the converging flow helps to provide an air barrier to shield the lens from foreign debris or moisture.

Robotic Welder fitted with EXAIR Super Air Wipe

If you would like to see what kind of irregular shape we can help fit through a Super Air Wipe to cool down or clean it off as it is fed down a process line, contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Basics of Entrainment

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment
EXAIR Super Air Nozzle entrainment

EXAIR has many choices for compressed air savings. EXAIR specifically takes pride in engineering products that not only save compressed usage when comparing to your existing processes but also considers the entrainment of ambient air compounding the compressed savings. Entrainment? Well think of it like this; We love “free” perks when using our reward cards at stores, gas stations or restaurants. Although you are paying the initial cost of whatever you are buying its nice knowing there is a “free” reward. We know producing compressed air is expensive, so we like that we have entrained savings when using our products.

EXAIR Super Air Knives are a perfect example of getting a reward when paying for your compressed air. Super Air Knives will entrain up to 40:1 ambient “free” air, so essentially you gain 40 SCFM of ambient air for every 1 SCFM being used. The illustration below shows more about our Super Air Knife.

Bernoulli’s equation takes into account four main variables which are Pressure (P), Density (r), Velocity (v), and a height difference (z); along with a single constant for gravity. The relationship between the velocity squared and the pressure from the equation above.  Being that this relationship is a constant along the streamline; when the velocity increases; the pressure has to come down. Now we have to look at how fluids like to behave. Fluids within a system like to be at a constant pressure when at the same height and reach a state of equilibrium. This means that fluids will always flow towards a low pressure area, which means that if you create a constant low pressure area you can amplify the air stream. This is the same principle as to why airplanes can fly.

Bernoulli’s Equation

EXAIR used the Bernoulli Principle when designing our Air Amplifiers, Air Knives, Air Wipes, Air Nozzles/Jets, Safety Air Guns and Static Eliminating Products. We not only designed in safety into our products but also the reward of “free” air or entrained air. If you would like to take advantage of the effects of air entrainment to improve your application blowing and cooling needs, we would like to be your first stop. Please contact any of our qualified Application Engineers for help with your application today!

Eric Kuhnash
Application Engineer
E-mail: EricKuhnash@exair.com
Twitter: Twitter: @EXAIR_EK

EXAIR Products Entrain FREE Ambient Air For Maximum Force and Flow

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Air entrainment is a term that we bring up quite often here at EXAIR. It’s this concept that allows many of our products to dramatically reduce compressed air consumption. The energy costs associated with producing compressed air make it an expensive utility for manufacturers. Utilizing engineered compressed air products that will entrain ambient air from the environment allow you to reduce the compressed air consumption without sacrificing force or flow.

Products such as the Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, Air Amplifier, and Super Air Wipe all take advantage of “free” air that is entrained into the primary supplied airstream. This air entrainment occurs due to what is known as the Coanda effect. Named after renowned Romanian physicist, Henri Coanda, the Coanda effect is used in the design of airplane wings to produce lift. As air comes across the convex surface on the top, it slows down creating a higher pressure on the underside of the wing. This creates lift and is what allows an airplane to fly.

EXAIR Super Air Nozzle entrainment

This is also the same principle which is allowing us to entrain ambient air. As the compressed air is ejected through a small orifice, a low-pressure area is created that draws in additional air. Our products are engineered to maximize this entrained air, creating greater force and flow without additional compressed air. Super Air Amplifiers and Super Air Nozzles are capable of up to a 25:1 air entrainment ratio, with just 1 part being the supplied air and up to 25 times entrained air for free!! The greatest air entrainment is achieved with the Super Air Knife at an incredible ratio of 40:1!

This air entrainment principle allows you to utilize any of these products efficiently for a wide variety of cooling, drying, cleaning, or general blowoff applications. In addition to reducing your compressed air consumption, replacing inefficient devices with engineered products will also dramatically lower your sound level in the plant. Sound level in some applications can even be reduced down to a point that would eliminate the need for hearing protection with the OSHA maximum allowable exposure limits set at 90 dBA for an 8-hour shift.

If you have inefficient blowoff devices in your facility, give us a call. An Application Engineer will be happy to help you select a product that will “quietly” reduce your compressed air consumption!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS


Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Eliminating Injection Molding Particulate In Secondary Operations

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment
Some applications call for a fixed-in-place solution, like the (above, from left) Super Ion Air Knife, Super Ion Air Wipe, Ion Air Jet, and Ion Air Cannon.) Others are best suited to the hand-held convenience of the Ion Air Gun

My career has always involved working with customers and helping problem solve to success. Back in the early 90’s, I was talking with a customer and asked their buyer what his worst job was with regard to price, scrap and overall headache and if he would let me quote it for him. He then showed me a car horn button assembly for a well known automaker. He just sourced this job out, but his current supplier could not make the daily rates, was overpriced and lacked consistent quality. He said if I could meet his objectives that he had other business coming up that he would let us bid and consider us as a new supplier.

I left my customer with the part drawing, yes part drawing because this was before our company had CAD, and we had to hand calculate everything for a quote, oh the good ole days. So I went back and had a discussion with my tooling engineer. We devised a system to manufacture this horn button assembly with a vertical molding machine and incorporate a hot stamp in the mold then assemble at the turntable. After this discussion we hit the Thomas Registry back then known as “Green Books” to find reputable vertical molding machines that would incorporate a rotating table for this operation.

Upon visiting 5 machine manufactures and 3 hot stamp suppliers we made our decisions and completed our quote all within 2 weeks, can you believe 2 weeks was a fast turnaround for a complex quote back then? Green books, part drawings, no cell phones, no GPS, no Internet, but I believe we did have a fax machine back then. So off we went on a three-day road trip to visit our suppliers of choice. We quickly made decisions and confirmed our pricing with our customer. He thought we were crazy and asked us to reevaluate our pricing as we were way too low compared to his current supplier. We felt comfortable with our quote and said we do not need to evaluate, and our price was good. He then told us that our price eliminated 11 operators when compared to our competitor. The customer officially awarded us the project when we guaranteed our price and delivery.

We ordered our equipment, built our molds and assembled our hot stamp machine to the rotary table of the vertical injection molding machine. Within 6 weeks we were ready for our first trial, it was almost an instant success. We did not account for static issues before hot stamping the horn button face. We were seeing contaminants under the hot stamped products, so we went back to our “Green Books’ and found EXAIR right in our own backyard. We talked with EXAIR over the phone, and they directed us to their Ion Air Jet and said this was a perfect application for this project and was also a stock item. We were just 30 miles from EXAIR, so we jumped in our car to pick up the “Will Call” order. EXAIR helped us resolve the static issue all within the same day eliminating our 4.5% scrap rate and all within hours of our initial phone call to EXAIR.

We then asked our customer to visit and watch our run rate, so our buyer would feel comfortable with our quote, quality and production rate. He mentioned through the entire process that he did not think we could hold our price or meet the annual requirements of 480,000 sets (LH and RH). He was pleasantly surprised with our work and saw first hand that we had a system that gave him a good run at rate, quality and competitive price.

Ion Air Jet on a Stay set hose.

EXAIR’s GEN 4 Ion Air Jet delivers a concentrated airflow that can cover a precise spot without disturbing other areas. This quiet, focused airstream provides incredibly fast static decay rates and cleaning ability. The EXAIR Ion Air Jet made a nice addition to the impressive engineering that went into this horn button assembly project.

Our customer was impressed with the solution, and it helped them keep their customer happy. Ultimately, we were able to get significant, future business from this customer. Without the help of EXAIR having competent products in stock, we might not have had such a good outcome. If you have the need for static eliminating products and not sure which one is right for you, please contact one of our Application Engineers. We can suggest which static eliminator is best for your application, answer your questions and provide material to help you decide on the best course of action.

Eric Kuhnash
Application Engineer
E-mail: EricKuhnash@exair.com
Twitter: Twitter: @EXAIR_EK