I wrote a while back about ordering off the menu, in regard to technical data on EXAIR products. I’d like to share another example of how we can help, if you don’t find just what you’re looking for in our catalog.
I recently had the pleasure of helping a new Line Vac customer – a machinery builder – who needed a combination of properties of two different products: the stainless steel construction of the 2” NPT Threaded Line Vac, but the performance of the 2” Heavy Duty Threaded Line Vac. The Installation & Operation Guide actually gives you instructions on drilling out the generator holes for increased air flow & performance, but they didn’t want to disassemble, modify, and reassemble the units if they didn’t have to. Which was fine with us – we were able to perform these modifications in assembly, and ship them, surprisingly quickly (surprising to our “new” customer anyway…) and they were quite pleased with the results. So much so, that the modified Line Vac is now standard equipment on this new machine.
Which of these Line Vacs has higher performance? We can’t be sure without checking the generator!
We get a fair number of calls about products or applications that don’t EXACTLY fit the parameters, specifications, and performance ratings of our catalog products. Some of them simply won’t work…and we’ll tell you. Other times, though, we’re able to put our Design, Production, and Application Engineering skills to the task, and hit one out of the ballpark. And we’re set up to do it better than anyone else.
If you’d like to discuss a compressed air products application that’s a little (or a lot) “off the menu,” give us a call.
Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
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This week I worked with two customers that wanted to boost their air flow with an Air Amplifier. One customer ended up going with a Special Air Amplifier. The second customer I ended up pointing to a different product line entirely. Keep reading to find out why.
The first customer needed to boost the exhaust flow through six inch duct. The six inch duct was an open vent that allowed fumes to slowly escape from a vessel. During normal operation the vessel, was unmanned, so the fumes only need a path to escape, but could linger. The company wanted to do some maintenance work in the area while the machine was in operation. The vent met the necessary requirements for the air flow of the machinery, but left maintenance workers exposed to a variety of fumes while working in the vessel, if the unit was in operation.
The customer was interested in the model 6034 Stainless Steel Air Amplifier. With 0.002″ air gap and 80 PSIG of inlet pressure, the unit will flow 1,200 SCFM of compressed air at the outlet of the Air Amplifier, but the 6034 can be adjusted to much higher flows from there. The Air Amplifier would easily be able to exhaust the fumes from the area to maintain a safe and comfortable working environment. The problem was mounting the 6034 Adjustable Air Amplifier. The 6034 is designed to be used in free air with the discharge side of the air amplifier connecting to a duct. The suction side of the Air Amplifier is as open as possible to entrain air, but my customer needed to connect the Air Amplifier to the outlet of the vent. We worked with the customer on designing an Air Amplifier to fit the 6″ Flange that they used to connect sections of their duct similar to the Air Amplifier pictured below.
This special stainless steel flange-mount Air Amplifier was designed for exhausting hot flue gases from a furnace.
My other customer called to move the air inside a heated drying tunnel. The customer uses a process air heater to heat a large drying tunnel. Unfortunately, the air heater created hot air at the entrance of the drying tunnel. By the time the air reached the end of the drying tunnel the temperature was significantly higher at the top of the tunnel as opposed to the bottom from natural convection. To counter this effect the customer wanted to move air from the process heater half way down the tunnel and release the air. In this application, the customer wanted to duct both the inlet and the outlet of an Air Amplifier. The Air Amplifier is not well suited for ducting and you limit the amount of air that the Air Amplifier can entrain by connecting it to a duct.
For this customer, I recommended he use a Line Vac. The Line Vac typically conveys materials, but it will also move a good amount of air. The customer was going to use heated compressed air and wanted to convey the air from the process heater to the other side of the drying tunnel. Another key benefit to the Line Vac is the discharge and suction side of the units are both the same size. This makes it extremely easy to install for the customer and is off the shelf, ready to ship.
Two similar applications on the surface that result in different product recommendation. Not every application for an air mover is this complicated, but if you want to talk through your application EXAIR’s application engineer’s will be happy to help.
This video blog demonstrates the simplicity of installing our Line Vac Air Operated Conveyors. The Line Vac uses a small amount of compressed air to move a large volume of material over a long distance. Requiring no electricity to operate and no moving parts, the units are virtually maintenance free. To see a Line Vac in action CLICK HERE.
This week customers have asked a few questions about EXAIR Line Vacs. I wanted to explain a few tips and tricks for using this product to achieve maximum performance. .
EXAIR’s Line Vacs are compact in-line conveyors that operate on compressed air. Their flexible designs can move large amounts of materials like plastic pellets, small component parts, or trim and waste materials. The Heavy Duty Line Vac is capable of moving more volume of material and much heavier material than the standard Line Vac and is also resistant to abrasion from materials like garnet, ground glass and tumbling media. The Line Vac is great for vacuuming out product from an open hopper or manual clean up operations.
Yesterday, I had a customer who wanted to use a Line Vac to convey products out of a silo. He wanted to move 10-15 pounds of material every 2 hours. The Line Vac should have worked for this application, but my customer had a problem. The Line Vac would move a small amount of the product when the system first started, but would not flow all of the product that was required. The customer was using a slide gate to meter out the correct amount of product that the Line Vac need to convey. This is a good way to meter the Line Vac to only convey what is required for the application. The problem is that the slide gate would also prevent any airflow moving from the silo into the Line Vac stream, and airflow is what moves material through a Line Vac. The Line Vac was only pulling a vacuum on the tube that connected to the slide gate, but it could not entrain any air to move the product.
By closing the slide gate after metering out the product the customer was removing all the air from their line. Air flow must move by the material and drag the material along in order to move it. With the slide gate closed any air is prevented from moving across the material.
I suggested the customer to add some air holes (breather holes) into the intake hose just after the slide gate. This would allow the correct amount of product to drop through the slide gate. The slide gate would then close and the Line Vac would run. The holes in the intake hose allowed the Line Vac to entrain air behind the material and convey it to its final destination. The Line Vac was able to convey the 10-15 pounds of material in less than 5 minutes once it had a source of air to entrain.
