Category: Compressed Air

Using Accessories to Boost Your Tools

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I was once on a local theater’s website, ordering tickets to an upcoming show that my wife and I were excited to see. I had the option to pay online and have a digital code emailed to me in lieu of a real live paper ticket. Can you believe they wanted to charge me almost $2 A TICKET for that?!? I adamantly refused (by that I mean I clicked the mouse extra hard on the “Will Call” button before completing my payment)…and saved that $4 (almost) for something REALLY important.

The night of the show, there was a 20-minute line at the Will Call window. Folks who had opted for the digital code were doing a quick scan with their smartphones and walking straight into the theater. I used the $4 I saved to partially pay for a $10 glass of wine from a concession kiosk in the lobby, as a peace offering for my lovely bride. That was indeed “something REALLY important.”

Another time, I was ordering a sump pump backup system for our house. I had the option of paying extra for the deluxe system, which came with all the fittings and a special tool to make installation a bit easier. Even though the ‘deluxe’ system adder was probably a bit more than the cost of the fittings from my local hardware store, I paid the “convenience fee” and got the deluxe system anyway. For the record, during the installation, I realized I would have bought an incorrect fitting at the local store which would have forced an emergency trip while I had the water turned off in my whole house. THAT was an inconvenience I was glad to have avoided.

Similarly, you can buy any EXAIR product with, or without, accessories that’ll make for simpler installation, improved performance, and to ensure it does what you want it to do. Some of these are product-specific, but many are suitable (and recommended) for use with any of our products:

Filter Separators

Good engineering practice calls for point of use filtration for any compressed air operated device. Even if you have the best intake & discharge filters on your air compressor, trace amounts of contaminants can sneak through, pipes can rust, and water vapor that the dryer doesn’t catch can condense. Particulates can build up and eventually clog the tight clearances in many engineered compressed air products, and if you’re using air for cleaning, drying, etc., keep in mind that whatever’s in your air will get on your product. Moisture isn’t always as big of a deal, but it can freeze inside Vortex Tubes, Spot Cooling Products, Cold Guns, and Cabinet Cooler Systems. That’s why we include Filter Separators in our Air Knife, Air Wipe, Static Eliminator Products, Line Vac, Adjustable Spot Cooler, Cold Gun, and Cabinet Cooler System Kits.

Automatic Drain Filter Separators come in sizes from 1/4 NPT to 1-1/4 NPT, for compressed air flows up to 400 SCFM.

Oil Removal Filters

These aren’t always needed, but we have them if your application calls for it. Some of the “usual suspects” are food & Pharma (see above “whatever’s in your air will get on your product”), blowoff prior to painting (the smallest amount of oil on the surface causes a phenomenon known as “fish eye” and it looks exactly like that sounds), or when your compressor is known to have oil carryover.

When properly installed downstream of an Automatic Drain Filter Separator (left,) an Oil Removal Filter (center) will provide clean, oil free air to the Pressure Regulator (right) and all downstream components.

Pressure Regulators

One of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to control the air pressure at the point of use to minimize air consumption. In other words, find the supply pressure for your product that gets the job done, so you don’t use any more compressed air than you have to. Like the Filter Separators above, these come with many EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product Kits.

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

Mounting Brackets and Coupling Kits

Most of our Filter Separators, Oil Removal Filters, and Pressure Regulators can be attached to a wall, panel, etc., with a Mounting Bracket, and can actually be attached to each other with a modular Coupling Kit. These parts simplify the installation, ensure they are oriented correctly, and minimize the chance for air leaks.

Filters (left) and Pressure Regulators (center) can be mounted using Brackets, and they can be connected together with Modular Couplers (right).

Silencing Mufflers

Many EXAIR products are engineered to develop a boundary layer of low velocity air flow that greatly reduces the sound level during operation. Other products use a venturi mechanism to draw a vacuum (Reversible Drum Vacs and E-Vac Vacuum Generators) or a Vortex Tube to generate cold air flow. The air flow from these products cannot be subjected to back pressure, and, without anything to mitigate the sound pressure generated by the rapid pressure drop as the air exits, they can be quite loud. For these, we have Silencing Mufflers that, except for the largest & most powerful of these products, reduce the sound level to be compliant with OSHA Standard 1910.95 Maximum Noise Exposure Limits.

From left to right… Reclassifying Mufflers offer the highest noise level reduction, eliminate oil mist, and come in sizes from 1/8 NPT to 1 NPT.
Sintered Bronze Mufflers are low cost and compact, with threads from #10-32 to 1-1/2 NPT.
Straight Through Mufflers use an internal sleeve of sound reducing foam, with threads from ¼ NPT to ¾ NPT, with male threads on one end and female threads on the other.
Heavy Duty Mufflers have an aluminum shell and an internal stainless steel screen that keeps contaminants like rust from being ejected in a dangerous way.  We have them in ¼ NPT and ¾ NPT sizes.

Shutoff and Solenoid Valves

Another one of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to turn off the compressed air when it’s not in use. For this, EXAIR offers manual ball valves, for operator control, and Solenoid Valves, to automate the process.

Solenoid Valves (left) are available for 120VAC, 240VAC, and 24VDC in sizes from 1/4 NPT to 1 NPT. We offer manual Ball Valves in sizes from 1/8 NPT to 1-1/4 NPT.

Swivel Fittings, Stay Set Hoses, and Magnetic Bases

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles are threaded for installation with common air pipe & hose fittings. If the pipe isn’t pointed in the exact right direction, a Swivel Fitting gives you 50°  of adjustability. If the pipe isn’t quite close enough to what you want to blow off, Stay Set Hoses come in lengths of 6″ to 36″, and when bent to aim the Air Nozzle, they ‘stay set’, as advertised, until they need to be moved. If a pipe doesn’t exist and you need to run an air hose from the nearest drop on the header, Magnetic Bases can support the Air Nozzle and a Stay Set Hose to get the air where you want it. They even have shutoff valves to turn them off when they’re not in use (that’s a good thing; see above).

Save installation time AND get your blowoff pointed in the right direction!

Hoses and Compressed Air Fittings

If you need one of the aforementioned air hoses to reach a Magnetic Base or to supply a Safety Air Gun, we have two diameters to choose from – 3/8″ ID (1/4 MNPT threads on the ends) and 1/2″ ID (1/2 MNPT threads on the end), and we can make them to any length you need. And, while our selection probably isn’t quite as comprehensive as your local piping supply shop, we stock a number of pipe nipples, Couplers, Reducers, Tees, and Elbows that are commonly used with our products. So – like my backup sump pump deluxe kit, we can put all the fittings you may require in the same box for you.

Contact an Application Engineer if you have ANY questions about how to properly supply compressed air to your EXAIR products.

At EXAIR, we’re here to make sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you need accessories to help with that, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Vac-u-Gun: Overview!

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

The Vac-U-Gun is capable of both vacuuming materials, as well as operating as a blow gun.  It has a unique design that has a reversible generator to allow modes to change simply and easily.  In this blog, I will go over the Vac-u-Gun and the packages that we offer. 

EXAIR’s Vac-U-Gun is a low-cost solution to a wide variety of smaller industrial housekeeping problems. The Vac-U-Gun is made from a durable die-cast construction and has no moving parts to replace or wear out. In addition to being easy to use, the Vac-U-Gun is also more efficient than the commonly found blowguns. By injecting a small amount of compressed air, a vacuum is then produced by a Venturi on one end and a high output flow on the other.  Switching from vacuum mode to blow-off mode can be achieved in just a matter of seconds. To change the direction of flow, simply remove the threaded cap at the end and change the orientation of the generator inside.

The Vac-U-Gun is available by itself, or as a system in one of three different kits. The model 6192 Collection System has the Vac-u-Gun, a reusable bag, a crevice tool, a brush tool, a skimmer tool, and two extension wands.  The model 6292 Transfer System has the items in model 6192 plus a 10-Foot (3 meter) vacuum hose.  Model 6392 All Purpose System has all the items in both systems. 

The extension wands are 19” (48 cm) long and can be used to help to reach the floor or into tough areas.  The tools and extensions are made from plastic to help clean electrical panels safely.  The vacuum hose can reach refuse containers to collect recyclable debris.  As a blow-off tool, the Vac-u-Gun uses very little compressed air and has an amplified output of 12 times that of the compressed air usage.  So, a large volume of air can help clean quickly. 

If you’re looking for a versatile gun that can help boost productivity in a number of applications within your facility, look no further than the Vac-U-Gun.  EXAIR offers a 30-day unconditional guarantee on our cataloged items to try.  You can see for yourself how effective the Vac-u-Gun systems are.  If you have any questions, an Application Engineer will be able to assist you. 

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Application Spotlight! – Back Blow Nozzle!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Last month I started doing an application spotlight. In these, I’m going to pull from the dozens of phone calls or emails and walk you through how we on the Application Engineering team select a product for a specific application!

A customer called in with a tricky application where they need to keep the ID of a bearing cool. Seemed like a simple application, something where an air amplifier or a Super Air knife would be ideal!

But this wasn’t a simple application. They were heating the OD up, so they could add a surface treatment. The radiating heat was causing the inner race to slightly deform, so they wanted to cool it down, while not interrupting the heating taking place on the OD. And an air amplifier or knife would cool the entire bearing down with its larger pattern of air.

So we had to come up with an off-standard use for one of our products, and the first thought was our Back Blow Nozzles. The bearing ID was 2″, so we went with a 1006SS as it’s rated from 7/8″ to 4″. It was located, so the air stream was aimed downward. The airflow was hitting the ID and bouncing off the plate that the bearing sat on and worked its way out the top. This limited the air flow around the OD to basically zero, so it didn’t affect the coating process! Below is a quick sketch I did with the customer on the phone. It shows a section of the bearing and the air flow that would come from the back blow nozzle!

In more common applications, such as blowing chips or debris forward out of a pipe, our selection of forward blowing nozzles work quite well. However, this may not always be possible. The pipe may be long, making it impossible to push the debris all the way down the pipe. The other end of the pipe may not be open or there could be some process or area to which it is attached that would become contaminated if debris were blown in that direction. In any of these scenarios, a Back Blow Nozzle is the right tool for the job. An array of holes located around the outside diameter of the Back Blow Nozzle head provides a powerful 360° airflow pattern that will pull and clear out any leftover coolant or chips ahead of it within a pipe from a machining or any other process.

From the easy ID blow out application to the tricky “off book” applications, the application engineering team here at EXAIR are here to help you select the right product for you!

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Bearing Photo courtesy of Patrick via creative commons

Types of Compressors: Single Acting Reciprocating

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

We often get asked for recommendations on what kind of air compressor a customer should buy. Although we would always recommend finding a local reputable air compressor dealer, and discussing your specific needs with them, we do know a thing or two about different types of compressors, and their benefits. In this blog I am going to discuss one particular type of air compressor – Single Acting Reciprocating Compressors.

Air compressors can be grouped into a few different categories. The first category would be positive displacement vs dynamic. Positive displacement can then be further subdivided into reciprocating and rotary. Within the reciprocating category, we have our single- and double-acting compressors. This compressor ‘family tree’ can be seen in the image above.

Single-acting reciprocating compressors use positive displacement to increase the air pressure. They do this by reducing the air volume within a confined space. They are called reciprocating (as opposed to rotary) because they use pistons that move back and forth. The single acting is due to only using one end of the piston to pull in and compress the air. In other words, the first stroke of the piston sucks the air inside the compressor while the air compression occurs in the second stroke.

Piston goes down: air draws in. Piston goes up: air is pushed out.

So, why would you choose a single-acting reciprocating compressor over the many other options? The main reason is its simplicity. This leads to several advantages:

  1. Price: They can cost less than other similar rated options up to about 5HP sizes. This is a great option for smaller industrial settings or for hobbyists.
  2. High Pressure: For single stage, compression pressures of 125PSIG can be achieved. However, with multistage cycles, pressures up to 6,000PSIG are possible.
  3. Durability: The construction is necessarily robust and rugged due to the nature of its design
  4. Maintenance: Preventative maintenance is typically easier with type of compressor.

Whenever we talk about the advantages, it is always important to note any disadvantages as well:

  1. Efficiency: They are less efficient than other compressor types, including the dual acting reciprocating that compresses air on both the up and down stroke.
  2. High Temperature: All compressors will generate heat by compressing the air molecules, but due to the friction of the reciprocating parts, more heat is generated by this type.
  3. Repair cost: Although preventative maintenance is easy, if something does break the cost of repair can be high. This is partly due to the robust nature of the construction.
  4. Noise: These are loud when in operation.

Regardless of which air compressor you have, it is important that your compressed air usage is efficient and safe. EXAIR’s intelligent compressed air products can help with that. If you want to discuss how you can increase safety and save energy, give me a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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