Category: Website Feature

What’s So Great About EXAIR’s CAD Library?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I was first introduced to CAD drawings when I was in the Navy. Right out of Nuclear Power School, I reported to a new construction Trident submarine. My first job was taking paper P&ID’s (Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams) to the Engineering room to verify that the valves, flanges, welds, pressure gauges, thermometers, etc. of various reactor and steam plant piping systems were in the right place, correctly labeled or marked, and visually free of defects. They’ve come a LONG way, technologically, since then:

When I left the Navy, I included some vague verbiage about CAD expertise on my resume. That actually got me a pretty cool job with an industrial pump company…making to-scale drawings of pump and drive assemblies, usually mounted on steel baseplates, that showed distances from the pump’s fluid ports to the baseplate mounting holes, so the millwrights & pipe fitters could work together to prepare for installation.

The absolute number one most important resource I had at my disposal was the ability to get to-scale CAD files (.dxf or .dwg) from pump, motor, gearbox, coupling, etc., manufacturers. The first rule of CAD is “never draw anything twice” and I rarely had to draw anything, except for items that we were fabricating ourselves. I had to call some manufacturers; others I could email; some would mail out a 3.5″ floppy disk (I know I’m dating myself with that one) or a CD (before THEY went obsolete) with everything they made on it…and some had drawing files you could download straight from their website. Just like EXAIR does.

Almost all the drawings I made back in the late 20th Century were 2D (front and side views), but nowadays, almost everyone uses solid modeling software (or apps) for drawings. This has the distinct advantage of being able to see the assembly from any angle, so you can tell right away if there’s going to be physical interference between two parts in close proximity to each other. While you can download models in a number of formats from the EXAIR website, .stp files are common to most modeling apps, so they’re the ones that get downloaded most.

If you have questions about EXAIR products — how they work, what they’re made of, which one is best for your application – give me a call. And if you need a drawing, I can help with that too.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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EXAIR’s New Catalog 36 Welcomes BETE

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

EXAIR‘s catalog is an invaluable resource that is designed to help businesses tackle conveying, cooling, cleaning, blowoff, drying, coating and static control challenges. We are happy to announce our latest edition – Catalog 36. This catalog features an expanded selection of products, technical guides, certifications, and expert insights to help manufacturers optimize their operations.

One of the most exciting additions to this catalog is the inclusion of some (new-to-EXAIR) BETE products. BETE has been at the forefront of spray technology since 1950 and provides high-quality and durable nozzles for any spray application imaginable. EXAIR.com will now carry select models of BETE Spray Nozzles available for order in addition to EXAIR’s wide range of solutions. And just like all of EXAIR’s other stock, catalog products, every BETE nozzle featured in our catalog will be available for same-day shipping on orders received before 2:00pm ET (1:00pm ET for orders to Canada).

It goes without saying that if you would like to learn more about these impressive products, then you can read about them in our new catalog 36 (both the physical copy, or through our digital catalog on our website). But if you can’t wait until you receive yours, let me give you a quick overview of handful of them in this blog:

MicroWhirl® (MW) Series Misting & Fogging Nozzle. These come in 1/8NPT, and offer an outstanding fine mist or fog with a rugged, pinless design that ensures drip-free performance. They include a 70-micron polypropylene filter. A 200-mesh 316 Stainless Steel filter option is available as an alternative. These are great for humidification, cooling, or evaporation applications.

NF Series High-Impact Flat Fan Spray Nozzle. These come in 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8NPT. They provide a high-impact spray with evenly tapered edges, enabling effective overlapping of sprays for complete coverage. With a durable, one-piece construction and no internal parts, this nozzle is reliable and easy to maintain. The NF nozzle is the ideal solution for numerous industrial applications, including coating, conveyor cleaning and parts washing.

TF Series Full Cone Spiral Nozzle. These come in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 3/4 and 1NPT sizes. They are the nozzles that BETE is known for. As the original inventor of the spiral, also known as a pigtail, corkscrew, or helix nozzle. Its durable, one-piece design with no internal parts delivers clog-resistant performance and high energy efficiency. When compared to whirl-type nozzles of the same flow rate, pressure drop and angle, TF spirals produce considerably smaller droplet sizes for fine atomization.

HydroClaw® (HC) Clog-Resistant Tank Cleaning Nozzle. This FDA-compliant, clog-resistant nozzle is ideal for Clean-In-Place systems, handles particles up to 1/4″, and efficiently cleans tanks at low pressure with high flow. Designed for compact openings, the HC is offered with threaded or secure clip-on connections. Large orifices create heavy jets that disperse via deflection cups into a uniform 360° spray, ensuring complete coverage.

If you’re looking for innovative, compressed air solutions, or if you are looking for even more liquid spray nozzles, then look no further than EXAIR’s catalog 36!

Al Wooffitt
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

Cabinet Cooler Selection

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

EXAIR‘s Cabinet Coolers are a low-cost and reliable way to cool and purge your electrical panels. They incorporate our Vortex Tubes to produce cold air from compressed air. With no moving parts, our Cabinet Coolers can run maintenance free for many years.

When selecting which Cabinet Cooler is right for your application, there are a few things for you to consider:

First, is your cabinet in a hazardous location? We have HazLoc Cabinet Cooler models that are rated for UL Classified areas, including Class I Div 1, Groups A, B, C, and D; Class II Div 1, Groups E, F, and G; and Class III; as well as ATEX rated units that are approved for use in Zones 2 and 22. All of our hazardous location Cabinet Cooler Systems need to be used in conjunction with a purged and pressurized control system.

From right to left: Small NEMA 12, Large NEMA 12, Large NEMA 4X

After this you will need to determine what NEMA integrity your enclosure requires.
We have NEMA 12(IP54) models, which are dust and oil tight. These are ideal for most industrial environments where no liquids or corrosives are present.
Our NEMA 4(IP66) options can be used inside and outside, and are splash resistant as well as dust tight and oil tight. The low-pressure relief valve will ensure the integrity of the NEMA 4 enclosure is maintained.
Finally, our NEMA 4X(IP66) option offers all the same protection as the NEMA 4X, but is constructed of stainless steel for food service and corrosive environments.

Next, you need to decide if you need continuous operation or thermostat control. The thermostat control systems are the most efficient way to operate a Cabinet Cooler. They save on compressed air by only activating the cooler only when the internal temperatures approach critical levels. The standard thermostat control systems include an adjustable thermostat factory set at 95°F. We also have our Electronic Temperature Control (ETC), which allows for precise temperature control that can be adjusted with the touch of a button.

ETC Electronic Temperature Control can be used in a wide variety of applications.

Finally, you will need to calculate the heat load to determine the cooling capacity. We have a calculator on our website that can help with this. However, if you speak to any of our Application Engineers, we can perform these calculations for you. If you would like to discuss your Cabinet Cooler application, feel free to give us a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay