Category: Atomizing Nozzles

EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Have you ever walked into a manufacturing facility during lunch, and it sounds like you’ve walked onto a plane full of snakes…? That’s a common issue across every sector of manufacturing. Compressed air is used for blowing off, cooling and cleaning everywhere you look. Below are the six steps to optimize your compressed air system. But today, let’s jump to step number 3 and see how upgrading those blow-offs with an engineered Safety Air Nozzle can help add to your bottom line.

If you’ve been tasked with reducing operating costs in your plant, upgrading your blow offs to EXAIR’s Engineered Air Nozzles & Jets might be just the ticket. When replacing a homemade or inefficient solution, EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles can save you as much as 80% of your compressed air usage.

An open copper pipe or tube, even if “flattened” as we’ll commonly see, wastes an excessive amount of compressed air. This wasted compressed air can create problems in the facility due to unnecessarily high energy costs and the pressure drop that can be experienced affecting other processes. In addition to simply using too much compressed air, an open pipe or tube will often produce sound levels in excess of 100 dBA. At these sound levels, according to OSHA, permanent hearing damage will occur in just 2 hours of exposure.

Crushed open pipe in the top right corner

By simply replacing the open tubes and pipe with an EXAIR Super Air Nozzle, you can quickly reduce air consumption AND reduce the sound level. Sound level isn’t the only thing an OSHA inspector is going to be concerned about regarding an open pipe blowoff. In addition, OSHA 1910.242(b) states that a compressed air nozzle used for blowoff or cleaning purposes cannot be dead-ended when used at pressures in excess of 30 psig. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to use an air gun with 30 psig fed to it, but the effectiveness of it is dramatically reduced. This is why there needs to be a device installed that’ll prevent it from being dead-ended so that you can operate at a higher pressure.

EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles are designed with fins that serve two purposes. They help to entrain ambient air from the environment, allowing us to maximize the force and flow from the nozzle but keeping the compressed air consumption minimal. In addition, these fins are what prevent the nozzle openings from being completely blocked off. Using an OSHA-compliant compressed air nozzle for all points where a blow off operation is being performed should be a priority. Each individual infraction will result in a fine if you’re unfortunate enough to be the victim of an unannounced OSHA inspection.

If you think a few Engineered Safety air nozzles will help add to your bottom line, give us a call. We have a full team of application engineers ready and willing to get you a solution to make your facility safer and save money!

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzles For Food Tray Mold Release Agent

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is one of the most common plastics that we see on a day-to-day basis. It’s what they make water and soda (or ‘soft drink’ or ‘pop’, depending on where you live) bottles out of, along with a lot of other products you find on the shelves and in the refrigerated cases of your local grocery store. A couple of times a week, we cook up a nice piece of fish from the seafood counter at our corner grocery: salmon if my wife stops in; whatever white fish is on sale if I do. Whichever becomes that night’s dinner, in any case, is packaged in a PET tray and sealed with plastic film.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with a caller whose company makes those trays. Turns out, they begin life as great big sheets, before they’re cut into smaller rectangles and formed in a mold press. Most anything that’s formed into a shape like that, with force and heat, needs to have some sort of lubricant – called a release agent – applied to the surface to make sure it exits the mold quickly and easily. In ANY molded product application, it’s advantageous to use as little as possible, for two reasons: specialty chemicals like these release agents can get expensive – especially the ones for food, beverage, or pharmaceutical use – and also because any remaining agent will get sealed up with whatever’s getting packaged.

Anyway, my caller’s molding machine came with spray nozzles that, no matter how low the flow was regulated, still sprayed too much. That meant the trays had no problem at all with falling right out of the mold, but the excess release agent was oftentimes causing HIS customer’s plastic film to not seal properly onto the finished food product, and he’d recently gotten an earful about it. He wished there was something he could use that didn’t spray much more than a light fog, because his supplier for the premium food grade release agent he used was always bragging that a light fog was all that was needed. In fact, the supplier actually recommended an EXAIR Model AF2010SS No-Drip Internal Mix, Flat Fan Atomizing Spray Nozzle.

With a flow rate as low as 1.2 gallons per hour, a one-second ‘spritz’ means 0.04 fluid ounces (that’s about a quarter of a teaspoon) gets spread out over the 16″ width of the mold. Which is just enough to let the freshly molded tray fall right out, with almost no residue left over.

When not-much-more-than-a-light-fog is called for, look no further than EXAIR Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles!

Whether your liquid spraying application involves pricey fluids that you don’t want to waste, or if you just don’t want to have to deal with the mess of over spraying, EXAIR has a wide selection of Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles to choose from. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Siphon Fed Nozzles for Spraying Without a Pressurized Liquid Source

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

At EXAIR we are primarily known for our compressed air products. However, we do have an extensive line of liquid spray nozzles.  These liquid nozzles fall into two main categories – Air Atomizing and Liquid Only Nozzles. We can further divide the Air Atomizing Nozzles into three more categories: Siphon Fed, External Mix, and Internal Mix. The Siphon Fed Nozzles are going to be the focus of this blog.

It is very common in spraying applications for the liquid to be pressurized. When that isn’t possible, our Siphon-fed nozzles are a great option. This type of nozzle pulls the liquid into the nozzle by creating a vacuum. This vacuum is created thanks to the special design of the air cap. As air flows through the air cap, it creates low pressure on the liquid side due to a venturi effect. These Atomizing Nozzles are capable of drawing liquid from a suction height of 36″ (91 cm) or can be fed by gravity from heights of 18″ (46 cm) or more.

Siphon Fed model

Manufactured out of 303-type stainless steel for durability and corrosion resistance, the Siphon Fed Nozzle comes in three different body sizes: 1/8 NPT, 1/4 NPT, and 1/2 NPT. This will allow for a wide range of possible application flow rates. The maximum liquid flow rate for each body size is managed by the air and liquid cap. These caps can be swapped out easily for each body size, allowing you to change the spray patterns, manage the fluid delivery rate, and minimize downtime when cleaning is needed. You can easily tweak the amount of liquid applied by adjusting the siphon height / or gravity feed height, inlet pressure, and the liquid adjusting valve stem. This way, you can fine-tune the exact fluid amount needed for your process, helping to avoid any waste.

EXAIR Siphon Fed Nozzles work with non-pressurized liquids, either siphoned (left) or gravity fed (right.)

If you would like to reduce waste even further, we also have our No-Drip option. EXAIR’s patented design helps prevent the liquid from leaking out of the Atomizing Nozzles when the compressed air supply is shut off; hence the name No-Drip! When the compressed air is switched off, a valve within the body seals off the liquid side. This is especially useful for sensitive applications, where the No-Drip feature will stop drips that might spoil the finish of your product when not activated.

If you’re looking for a solution to your liquid spray application, but want to avoid liquid pumps or pressure pots, the Siphon Fed Atomizing Nozzle may be right for you. If you would like to discuss your liquid spraying application, I’d be happy to discuss the application with you and make a reasonable recommendation backed up by our 30-Day guarantee.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Different Spray Patterns For Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzles use compressed air to atomize liquid flow. Across the product line, we offer a wide range of liquid flow rates. Model SF8010SS Siphon Fed Flat Fan Pattern 1/8 NPT Atomizing Spray Nozzle can get as low as 0.14 gallons per hour. That’s about a quarter of an ounce – a little less than two teaspoons – per minute. On the other end of the spectrum, Model EF5010SS External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Pattern 1/2 NPT Atomizing Spray Nozzle can provide up to 303 gallons per hour of liquid flow (we tested with water; if you’re spraying something else – especially if the viscosity or specific gravity is different – your mileage may vary.) That’s about 5 gallons per minute, or approximately twice the amount of flow from a typical kitchen faucet.

Both of those Atomizing Spray Nozzles create flat fan patterns:

Flat Fan pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzles are ideal for rinsing wine bottles, spraying rust inhibitor on parts on a conveyor, or rinsing wine bottles. I know I mentioned wine bottles twice…I like wine.

Flat Fan Pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzles can generate flat fans as narrow as 3″ (at a distance of 6″ from the spray tip) or as wide as 68″ (at a distance of 15″ from the spray tip.) They’re available for Internal Mix, External Mix, or Siphon Fed operation. Most of them spray straight out from the Air Cap, as shown above, but Model AD1010SS (right) has a Deflected Fan Pattern, so it sprays at a right angle to the Spray Nozzle’s orientation. They’re particularly well-suited for installation in tight spaces or anywhere that space is at a premium.

Other applications call for round patterns. These are great for dust mitigation, humidification, applying paint or lubrication, light misting, or heavy soaking, just to name a few. They can make round patterns with diameters as small as 1.5″ (at a distance of 6″ from the spray tip) to 31″ (at a distance of 15″ from the spray tip.)

Round pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzles are popularly used for applying lubricating fluid to machine tools, flame retardant to wood trim, and color code marking on metal bars.

EXAIR also makes 360° Hollow Circular Pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzles. These are Internal Mix models, and they spray the liquid out in a fine, atomized mist in all directions. They can spray as little as 1.6 gallons per hour, or as much as 150 gallons per hour, and can create spraying diameters of up to 13 feet.

360° Hollow Circular Pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzles are great for applying a smooth, even coating to the ID of a pipe, cylinder, or duct. They can also be used for misting, humidification, and cooling of large areas.

If you need a consistent, reliable mist of atomized liquid, we’ve got you covered. To discuss an application or product selection, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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