Category: Adjustable Spot Cooler

Adjustable Spot Cooler Improves Production Of Can Lids

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Canned food has been around since the early 1800s, when the French government offered 12,000 francs (I don’t know how much that is in today’s currency, but it sounds like a LOT) to the first person to come up with a way to effectively and affordably preserve food, so the French army could take it with them during Napoleon’s planned conquest of Europe. Nicolas Appert, a candy maker and chef to the rich and famous, had been experimenting with cooking food inside sealed containers and noticed that it didn’t spoil if the seals didn’t leak. So he demonstrated his technique to the powers that be, and walked away with the 12,000 franc prize. It didn’t really pan out for the army because the process was slow & expensive, but canned food became something of a novelty among the aforementioned rich & famous of the day. This WAS the heyday of the Industrial Revolution, though, and food companies quickly advanced the technology for mass production. Today, there are very few food products that you won’t find a canned or jarred version of. In the early days, you had to use a can opener, but today you can find pull tabs on many cans, especially beverages.

Ever since Jimmy Buffett cut his heel on the one on the left in “Margaritaville”, we’ve been drinking from cans with ‘pop tops’ like the one on the right.

A more recent innovation is a peel-off foil seal on the lid that seals the product for freshness, immediately after packaging. It’s then removed by the consumer after purchase, and the container is commonly supplied with a plastic lid that snaps onto the rim.

A container manufacturer uses Model 3925 Adjustable Spot Cooler Systems with Dual Outlet Cold Air Hoses to rapidly cool the freshly heated sealed foil onto metal lids like those that are used for coffee cans. This allows them to move the lids from the heat sealing station to the next process faster.

From left to right: EXAIR Mini Coolers, Cold Guns, and Adjustable Spot Coolers come with Magnetic Bases for instant installation.

Because they generate cold air flow on demand, this is a very common application for EXAIR Vortex Tube Spot Cooler products. With no moving parts to wear or electrical components to burn out, they’re reliable & durable. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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What’s So Great About The Adjustable Spot Cooler?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR Adjustable Spot Coolers are ideally suited to a number of applications that need a flow of cold air on demand. Different applications will require more or less flow, and higher or lower temperatures. Let’s say you’re trying to cool an object to ambient temperature with a Model 3825 Adjustable Spot Cooler supplied with compressed air at 100psig and 70°F, but it’s not cooling the object as fast as you’d like. You can:

  • Increase the supply pressure, if possible. With a 100psig inlet pressure to the Adjustable Spot Cooler, you’re getting 20 SCFM of cold flow, at 16°F (assuming it’s set to an 80% Cold Fraction, which is usually ideal for spot cooling.) If you can get it to 120psig, you’ll increase the cold flow from 20 SCFM (80% of the 25 SCFM it’s using at 100psig) to 23.4 SCFM (80% of the 29.3 SCFM it’ll use at 120psig). And it’ll be colder (it’ll produce air with a 55°F temperature drop @120psig, vs 54°F @100psig).
EXAIR Vortex Tube Performance Chart – this is where the above – and below – ‘facts & figures’ come from.
  • Decrease Cold Fraction. Depending on the object’s size, material(s) of construction, amount of surface area available for heat transfer, etc., you could improve the cooling rate with lower temperature air, even if there’s less of it. If it’s particularly small in relation to the cold air flow pattern, a portion of that cold air flow might pass by without removing any heat at all. So, decreasing the temperature of the cold air that IS working will increase your rate of heat transfer. This is done by turning the knob of the Temperature Control Valve:
Turning the knob (2) counterclockwise opens the Temperature Control Valve, letting more of the supply flow (1) out of the hot end (3), and less of it to flow to the cold end (4). This also lowers the temperature of the cold air flow.
  • Change the Generator. The Adjustable Spot Cooler comes with a 25 SCFM Generator installed, but 15-R and 30-R Generators are included as well. Replacing the 25 SCFM Generator with a 30 SCFM Generator makes it use 30 SCFM @100psig, but you’ll increase the cold flow from 20 SCFM to 24 SCFM, assuming you leave it set at an 80% Cold Fraction. Keep in mind, though, that you can lower the Cold Fraction to get the same amount of cold flow as you were getting from the 25 SCFM Generator, but now it’ll be colder. If you open the Temperature Control Valve to a 70% Cold Fraction, you’ll reduce the cold flow to 21 SCFM of cold flow, but now it’ll be -1°F.

Everyone here at EXAIR wants you to get the most out of our products. If you’d like to find out more about how to do that, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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EXAIR Case Study: Tube Cooling with the Adjustable Spot Cooler!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

EXAIR has an extensive library of Case Studies for your reference to learn about how our products can help. The library is organized by product, so you can easily find the information and product you are interested in. These case studies summarize how our customers have purchased, used, and benefited from our products and their implementation. These studies focus on our products and our customers’ projects. We keep our customers anonymous and only use photos, details and data that are approved to be shared.
Here is an example of my latest case study!

APPLICATION GOAL: Customer is an OEM who builds 20 automated systems every year. One of the most time-consuming applications is heating and bending Teflon tubes that route fluids around the system. They wanted to speed up the time it took to do this, and increase the accuracy of the bends.

BEFORE EXAIR: When forming Teflon tubing for plumbing runs inside these large processing machines, the tubing needs to be heated with a heat gun to soften the tube to allow for forming. After forming, the tube must cool down to hold its shape. Cooling time can take approximately 6 minutes per bend. Alternatively, ice-water-soaked rags can be used, which may decrease the time down to 2–3 minutes.  However, there is no guarantee that the form will hold at the precise angle and may need to be reformed, which starts the process over again. Also, ice water and rags create a mess and can cause a slipping hazard if dripped on the floor.

AFTER EXAIR: Using the EXAIR Model 3925 Adjustable Dual Spot Cooler System, they were able to decrease the cooling time to under one minute. And due to the dual hose option, it gave them the ability to spread the cold air around the tubes so they did not have to remove them from the fixture while cooling, meaning the tube holds its shape to a greater accuracy.

SUMMARY:  By reducing the cooling time from 6 minutes per bend to approx. 1 minute per, with at least 300 bends per part, we can reduce the production time for each piece of equipment by 25 hours. Producing 20 pieces of equipment per year frees up the equivalent of 20.83 working days.  With an hourly rate average of $26.40, the EXAIR Model 3925 Adjustable Dual Spot Cooler System saves them $660.00 USD per machine in work hours alone! Over the course of one year, that’s a savings of $13,200.00 USD for just work hours. Meaning the ROI is right around the use of the Adjustable Spot Cooler to build one machine.

EXAIR appreciates a good success story. We encourage you to share your successes in using one or more of our products in your application. EXAIR believes in case studies so much, we incentivize our customers’ participation. We will offer a discount to any company who will provide enough information to produce a case study. If you are interested in creating a case study (and saving money) on your next project, please contact one of our Application Engineers. We would be happy to explain the details of working through this process with you.


Jordan Shouse, Application Engineer
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Adjustable Spot Cooler from EXAIR

Published on by Jordan T Shouse2 Comments

The Adjustable Spot Cooler is a low cost, reliable, maintenance free way to provide spot cooling to a myriad of industrial applications. Simply turn the knob, and the temperature can be changed to suit the needs of the process. The Adjustable Spot Cooler delivers precise temperature settings from -30 °F (-34 °C) to room temperature.

Adjustable Spot Cooler
Adjustable Spot Cooler

The Adjustable Spot Cooler utilizes the Vortex Tube technology that converts compressed air into a cold air stream. To learn more about EXAIR vortex tubes, click here.

  • It can produce temperatures form -30 °F to +70 °F (-34 °C tp +21 °C)
  • Parts included for flow rates of 15, 25 and 30 SCFM (425, 708, 850 SLPM.) The unit comes from the factory set at 25 SCFM (708 SLPM)
  • It can produce refrigeration up to 2,000 BTU/hr (504 Kcal/hr.)

A swivel magnetic base allows for easy mounting and portability, you can move it from machine to machine as needed. The flexible cold air outlet tubing holds its position and is easy to aim. Most importantly, there are no moving parts or CFC’s, ensuring maintenance free operation.

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The Adjustable Spot Cooler maintains critical tolerances on machined plastic parts
How the Adjustable Spot Cooler Works

The Adjustable Spot Cooler incorporates a vortex tube to convert a supply of compressed air (1) into two low pressure streams, one hot and one cold. With the turn of a knob, the temperature control valve (2) allows some hot air to flow through a muffling sleeve and out the hot air exhaust (3). The opposite end provides a cold air stream (4) that is muffled and discharged through the flexible hose, which directs it to the point of use. The swivel magnetic base (5) provides easy mounting and portability.

The Adjustable Spot Cooler can produce a wide range of air flows and temperatures as determined by the temperature control valve knob setting and the generator installed. The generator controls the total SCFM (SLPM) of compressed air consumption, and is easy to change. From the factory, the 25 SCFM (708 SLPM) generator is installed, producing up to 1,700 BTU/hr (429 Kcal/hr) of cooling. For less cooling, the 15 SCFM (425 SLPM) generator can be installed, providing up to 1,000 BTU/hr (252 Kcal/hr) of cooling. And for more cooling, the 30 SCFM (850 SLPM) generator can be installed, providing up to 2,000 BTU/hr (504 Kcal/hr) of cooling.

Adjustable Spot Cooler Specifications

Two (2) Systems are available as shown below, and include the 15 and 30 SCFM (425 and 850 SLPM) generators, a filter separator, and either a single or dual point hose kit.

3825_3925 adj spot cooler

If you have any questions on how our Adjustable Spot Cooler can help save you money give us a call! One of our application engineers will be happy to assist!

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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