Category: Static Elimination

Laminar and Turbulent Air Flow

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment

I have a manufacturing background primarily with automotive and plastic injection molding. I used compressed air but I will admit that I did not know the difference between Laminar and Turbulent air flow. You’ll often hear EXAIR refer to laminar vs turbulent flow when discussing our blow off of products. I will briefly describe the difference between the two and hopefully we all learn something new. In any blow off process or application, laminar airflow is going to be much more effective at eliminating pressure drops, blowing product and reducing noise levels than the turbulent air flow. To read more about the math behind it, check out my colleague John Ball’s previous post here.

A good example of an EXAIR product that delivers a laminar air flow are our Super Air Knives. The super air knife offers a more efficient way to clean, dry or cool parts, webs or conveyors. They deliver a uniform sheet of “Laminar” airflow across the entire hard-hitting force. The Super Air Knives deliver a uniform sheet of air that has the same force across the entire length.

The efficiency of EXAIR’s Super Air Knife delivering the laminar air flow becomes more valuable when comparing the effectiveness to a blower operated knife or fans. A fan “slaps” the air, resulting in a turbulent airflow where the airflow particles are irregular and will interfere with each other. A laminar airflow, by contrast, will maintain smooth paths that will never interfere with one another, which allows for maximum velocity and can produce higher force levels.

EXAIR had a customer needing help applying icing on snack cakes. As baked sponge cakes moved down a conveyor, a continuous ribbon of icing was applied to the individual cakes. Trying to make a clean break in the icing was next to impossible. Mechanical blades needed constant cleaning. Compressed air through a series of holes in drilled pipe used too much air, was noisy and did not make a clean break.

The solution was using an EXAIR Stainless Steel Super Air Knife. A photo eye detected space between cakes turning the compressed air on at the precise moment to apply a uniform airflow and velocity against the ribbon of icing, creating a nice clean break. The stainless steel Air Knife was the best choice for this application. Since there was no contact with the icing, no additional cleaning was required. The Laminar flow of the Super Air Knife had uniform velocity across the entire length and broke the ribbon of icing evenly. This successful result would never have been possible with turbulent air from drilled pipe, nozzles or a blower.

The Super Air knives are just one of many of EXAIR’s Intelligent Compressed Air products. When planning your next project that requires compressed air please contact one of our many Application Engineers for assistance. EXAIR takes pride in our products and customer service.

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

Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Cleans Art!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

I took a phone call recently from an artist who applies thin colored films to glass sheets. He then uses several panes of that colored glass to build beautiful simplistic art installations! They are so clean and clear every angle you look through you get a different color and view you wouldn’t expect. But he was having a problem, these sheets of glass were building a large static charge and making every bit of dust and dirt stick to the surface. They were spending countless hours painstakingly cleaning every panel of glass because one spec of dirt would ruin the end goal.

Colored Glass Walk Way

Originally they called in to look at the Super Air Knife, which is good to remove dirt, dust and debris – but does not eliminate static if that debris were to be held on to the glass with static. His idea was to poor water on the glass then use the Super Air Knife to blow the water off, messy but they were hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Getting rid of the static and cleaning the glass all at once. He was excited when I told him about out our GEN4 Super ION Air Knife! It would have the ability to neutralize the static charge and blow away any debris clinging to the surface.

The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife floods an area or surface with static eliminating ions. With a uniform airflow across its length, misalignment to critical surfaces, like a web, is avoided.  The force can be adjusted from a light breeze, to a full out blast of air. The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife is electrically powered, is shockless and has no moving parts.

How It Works

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How The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Works

In the diagram above, compressed air flows through an inlet (1) into the plenum chamber of the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife. The flow is directed to a precise, slotted orifice. As the primary airflow exits, it creates a uniform sheet of air across the entire length, pulling in in surrounding air (2). An electrically powered Gen4 Ionizing Bar (3) fills the curtain of air with positive and negative charges. The air stream delivers the static eliminating ions to the product surface (4) where it instantly neutralizes static and cleans off dust and other particulates.

The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives are powerful tools, and very quickly dissipates 5kV of static even at low compressed air supply pressures. At 5 PSIG, only 3.7 SCFM (0.3 BAR, only 105 SLPM) of compressed air per foot of length is required!!  Sound levels are also very low, resulting in quiet operation.

super ion air knife performance

Added Features –

  • Compressed Air Inlets are provided on each end and the bottom of the Super Air Knife
  • Thicker shims can be installed easily if more force is needed.
  • Emitter points are durable stainless steel
  • The high voltage cable is armored to resist cuts and abrasion, and has integral grounding.  Threaded bayonet connector is fully assembled and ready to use
  • Electromagnetically shield cable protects sensitive electronics
  • Gen4 Ionizing Bars and Power Supplies are UL Component Recognized to U.S and Canadian safety standards and are CE and RoHS compliant
  • Power Supplies are 115/230 VAC selectable and come with 2 or 4 outlets
  • Standard lengths from 3″ to 108″ (76mm to 2743mm) are offered, and custom lengths are available to meet your process needs

Successful applications include web cleaning, pre-paint dust removal, shrink wrapper machinery, printing equipment, package cleaning,and bag opening/filling operations.

If you have questions about Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives, other types of Static Elimination products,  or any of the 16 different EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product lines, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or any of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Image courtesy of Jared Yeh Rainbow Panorama, Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Decibel Levels in Manufacturing

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment

The Decibel (dB) is a unit used to measure the intensity of sound. Decibel levels are a little tricky as human ears are incredibly sensitive. Our ears can hear everything from a gnat flying by your ear to to very loud jet engines. The range of sound level is very vast. Manufacturing environments can be loud and expose employees to harmful noise levels. You can see some interesting manufacturing noise exposure data from the CDC, here.

On the decibel scale, the smallest audible sound (near total silence) is 0 dB. A sound 10 times more powerful is 10 dB. A sound 100 times more powerful than near total silence is 20 dB. A sound 1,000 times more powerful than near total silence is 30 dB. Here are some common sounds and their decibel ratings:

Experience tells us that many things distance affects the intensity of sound. Noise levels can be due to product design, proximity to the noise, frequency of processes, quantity of noise producing machines or processes. Exposure to high noise levels can be harmful. Extended length of exposure to sound levels above above 80 dB can begin hearing loss. If you feel you have to raise the level of your voice to be heard then you can assume that you are in an environment of 85 or greater dB. OSHA Standard 29 CFR-1910.95 (a) shows the Maximum Allowable Noise Exposure.

EXAIR engineers our products with safety and exposure in mind and we manufacture most every product to be under any threshold where hearing protection is required. If any product (like our largest Super Air Nozzles) is above the threshold, EXAIR is clear that hearing protection is needed. Please visit www.EXAIR.com and view how our Intelligent Compressed Air Products can help your quality of work atmosphere. If you have any questions regarding our products or for advice as to what products can improve the safety of your work environment, please contact any one of our Application Engineers.

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

Understanding your ROI for EXAIR Products

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment

I used to hold a purchasing/engineering role for a previous company and as part of that role I was required to understand all costs of a project. The value of knowing the return of your investment is obvious but the benefit of this knowledge enhanced communications with other team members and at times with your customer. So how can I understand the economic impact from purchasing and Intelligent Compressed Air product from EXAIR?

EXAIR makes an easier job of calculating your ROI when purchasing our product(s). Simply go to www.EXAIR.com and click on “Resources”, located on the top center of our homepage. You will see “Calculator Library” where you can see our “Air Savings Calculator“.

Calculating your ROI using this tool is simple, simply place your current consumption rate (SCFM), the cost of our product(s), the SCFM for our product(s) and your cost of compressed air per 1000 Cubic feet (if this is unknown, $0.25/1000 cubic feet is a reasonable number to use).

  1. Current Consumption (SCFM): This is the current air requirements for your current process.
  2. Cost of EXAIR Product(s): This is the expenditure of the EXAIR product(s) being purchased.
  3. EXAIR Product(s) consumption (SCFM): This can be found in our catalog, web site or by calling EXAIR and talking to an Application Engineer.
  4. Cost of Compressed Air: This can be determined at your facility or a good industry average is $0.25/1000.

The calculator will automatically calculate your return and show you the payback in number of days. EXAIR encourages the use of our website and/or calling our Application Engineers for additional information or education on air savings. We are customer friendly and always eager to help.

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