Precision and Control with EXAIR Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

When it comes to applying coatings, cooling, humidifying, or lubricating, precision atomization makes all the difference. EXAIR’s Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles are engineered to provide fine, uniform spray patterns with exceptional control—helping manufacturers achieve consistent results while conserving compressed air and liquid.

Internal Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles

How EXAIR Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles Work

EXAIR’s Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles mix compressed air and liquid inside the nozzle body. This design produces the finest atomization and is ideal when both air and liquid flow rates can be precisely controlled.

The result? A highly consistent spray pattern with optimized droplet size and coverage—perfect for applications requiring accuracy and repeatability.

Key Benefits

  • Fine atomization: Internal mixing produces a mist with smaller droplets for superior coverage and surface finish.
  • Flexible spray patterns: Available in round, narrow-angle, and flat fan patterns to suit a wide range of needs.
  • Precise flow control: Independent adjustment of air and liquid allows you to fine-tune performance for your exact process.
  • Durable construction: Built in stainless steel for long life and corrosion resistance, even in harsh environments.
  • Reduced waste: Delivers the right amount of liquid—exactly where it’s needed—minimizing overspray and product loss.

Applications Across Industries

EXAIR Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles are used in a wide variety of industries and processes, including:

  • Coating and painting of parts or products
  • Cooling of molds, tooling, and components
  • Moistening of materials in paper, textile, or food processing
  • Lubrication in metalworking or cutting operations
  • Dust suppression in handling and processing operations
142 distinct models. 8 different patterns. Liquid flow rates from 0.1 to 303 gallons per hour. If you’ve got a spraying application, EXAIR has an Atomizing Nozzle for you!

Why Choose EXAIR?

With EXAIR, you’re getting more than just a nozzle—you’re getting a complete engineered solution backed by decades of experience in compressed air efficiency. Every nozzle is designed for reliability, ease of maintenance, and precise performance, ensuring a consistent spray every time.

Looking to improve your spray application efficiency?
Explore EXAIR’s Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles and discover how precision atomization can enhance quality, reduce waste, and improve process control in your operation.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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Compressed Air Savings Made Easy: Turn Off Air When Idle

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Compressed air is often the most expensive utility in an industrial facility. The energy required to generate compressed air makes it a significant operational cost. That is why EXAIR focuses on providing products that help reduce overall compressed air consumption and improve efficiency throughout your processes.

The simplest way to save compressed air is to turn it off when it is not needed. While that sounds straightforward, many operations cannot rely on manually opening and closing a valve. For example, if parts move along a conveyor and need to be cooled, dried, or blown off, there are usually gaps between parts. Running a blowoff continuously during those gaps results in wasted compressed air. Reducing that unnecessary usage can significantly lower the load on your air compressor.

EXAIR’s Electronic Flow Control, or EFC, provides an easy way to automate these savings. The system uses a photoelectric sensor to detect when a part is present. When no part is in place, the EFC closes a solenoid valve to stop the compressed air. When the next part arrives, the air turns back on automatically. This ensures air is supplied only when it is actually needed.

To demonstrate the impact an EFC can have, here is a real example. A manufacturer of car bumpers was using a Model 112060 60 inch Super Ion Air Knife at 40 PSIG to remove dust before painting. The dust was clinging to the bumpers due to a residual static charge. They traveled at roughly 10 feet per minute and had one foot of spacing between each part. Each bumper was under the air knife for 10 seconds, followed by 6 seconds with no part present. Because the operation ran three shifts, the system used compressed air for a total of 1,440 minutes per day.

A 60-inch Super Ion Air Knife consumes 102 SCFM at 40 PSIG. Without any control system, its total usage was:

102 scfm x 1,440 minutes = 146,880 SCF

After installing the EFC, the air turned off during the 6-second gap. This reduced airflow by 37.5 percent. The new daily consumption was:

146,880 SCF x .625 = 91,800 SCF

Using the common estimate that compressed air costs $0.25 per 1,000 SCF, the daily savings from reducing 55,080 SCF of use came to $13.77:

55,080 SCF x ($0.25/1,000 SCF) = $13.77

Because this facility operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the yearly savings reached $5,012.28:

$13.77 x 7 days/week x 52 weeks/year = $5,012.28

These savings easily paid for the EFC in less than six months. After that point, the system continued saving money every day with no additional effort.

EXAIR has EFC models in stock for applications using up to 350 SCFM. For higher flow rates, models with dual solenoids are available as well. If any of your processes involve intermittent compressed air use, we would be happy to evaluate the application and help you determine how quickly an EFC could begin saving you money.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Accessories for Your Compressed Air Products

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Here at EXAIR we are very proud of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products. We have spent a lot of time discussing their many benefits, including their efficiency, the fact that many have no moving parts, little to no maintenance, meeting or exceeding OSHA safety standards for noise or dead end pressure. One thing we don’t talk as much about is the accessories that go along with and complement our products. Several of these accessory items are the reason why our compressed air products can boast about having little to no maintenance, or reduced noise levels. In this blog I want to cover some of these unsung heroes.

From left to right, a few value-added accessories for your Vortex Tube: Hot Muffler, Cold Muffler, Automatic Drain Filter Separator, Oil Removal Filter, and Solenoid Valve/Thermostat Kit.

Some of the most popular accessories we offer are our compressed air Filters and Regulators. We suggest using these with all our products (or even with ones that aren’t ours).

The Filter Separator is designed to remove moisture, dirt, and rust from your compressed air system. The 5-micron filter element ensures that contaminants don’t clog or harm your compressed air equipment.

An Oil Removal Filter (which should always be installed after our Filter Separator) provides even more precise filtration by getting rid of oil and solid particles with a 0.03-micron element.

Our Pressure Regulators let you choose the operating pressure. At EXAIR, we always advise running at the lowest pressure necessary to complete the task. Pressure Regulators help you achieve that, reducing unnecessary air usage and fine-tuning the performance of EXAIR products for your specific application.

We have some accessories designed specifically for certain products. For our Line Vacs, there’s the Line Vac Hose. You can also find Thermostats and Solenoid Valves that work great with our Cabinet Coolers, and if you’re using Vortex Tubes, we suggest checking out our Mufflers.

When it comes to our Air Knives, we offer a variety of fantastic options:

If you’re looking for a simple and dependable way to mount your Air Knife, our Universal Air Knife Mounting System is just what you need.

If your project needs something longer than our stock Air Knives, or if you want to manage different sections of the air flow separately, our Coupling Bracket Kits are ideal.

And if you want to simplify the plumbing for your Air Knife, don’t miss our Air Knife Plumbing Kits. They’re suitable for all Air Knives that are longer than 24 inches.

If you’re looking for plumbing options, we’ve got a range of compressed air hoses and fittings that will simplify things for you.

Our Coiled Hoses work great with our Safety Air Guns, giving you more freedom of movement while you work.

Our Compressed Air Hoses are often used alongside our Industrial Housekeeping products to provide the necessary reach for the drum and dolly.

Finally, if you’re looking for a way to mount or position your Air Nozzles, check out our Magnetic Bases, Stay Set Hoses, and Swivel Fittings that can help create a complete setup.

No matter what your application requires or the product you need, we’ve got a variety of complementary accessory products that will simplify installation and adjustments. If you have any questions about these or any other EXAIR products, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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What’s So Awful About A Drilled Pipe For A Conveyor Blowoff?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

A technician from a company that performs comprehensive audits of compressed air systems called me with a sad, sad story. A client had just installed a brand-new state-of-the-art rotary scroll compressor with a variable speed drive…they were going all-out on efficiency, which is great. During the technician’s walk-through, however, he noticed a blowoff on a conveyor belt — they actually heard it before they could see it — a black iron pipe with a series of holes drilled along the length, plumbed with compressed air being supplied, unregulated, from a 100psig header.

The pipe was 18″ long and had 30 holes, 1/8″ diameter each, drilled along the length. From the table below, we can presume that this drilled pipe was consuming as much as 475.8 SCFM:

I say “as much as 475.8 SCFM” because the technician noted the holes were simply drilled through, they weren’t rounded, so I calculated the flow from a 1/8″ orifice at 100psig (26.0 CFM) with a 0.61 multiplier for sharp edges orifices. Also, the inlet pressure of the drilled pipe is not known. With a 1″ pipe supplying it, the flow could be limited to around 350 SCFM, due to line loss in the pipe.

The technician first asked about installing Air Nozzles in the drilled pipe. That’d mean drilling those holes out and tapping them individually. This COULD be done, and the drilled pipe could be fitted with 30 Model 1110-PEEK Nano Super Air Nozzles, with an air consumption of 8.3 SCFM @80psig each, for a total of 249 SCFM. That’s a significant reduction, but also a lot of work on the drilled pipe. I recommended replacing it entirely with a Super Air Knife.

A Model 110018 18″ Aluminum Super Air Knife consumes only 52.2 SCFM @80psig — almost an order of magnitude reduction! Let’s do the math on the costs:

First, the drilled pipe: Let’s give all the benefit of the doubt here and assume that the line loss had indeed limited the air consumption to 350 SCFM. Operating 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and using the US Department of Energy’s estimate that compressed air costs $0.25 per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet used, the annual operating cost of the drilled pipe was $10,920.00:

350 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 8 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $10,920.00

Drilling & tapping those holes for EXAIR Nano Super Air Nozzles (8.3 SCFM ea X 30 = 249 SCFM total) would result in an annual operating cost of $7,768.80:

249 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 8 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $7,768.80

Replacing the drilled pipe with an EXAIR 18″ Super Air Knife (52.2 SCFM) drops the annual operating cost even further, to $1,628.64:

52.2 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 8 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $1,628.64

To put that further into perspective, the 2025 List Price for an 18″ Aluminum Super Air Knife is $533.00. It costs almost $9,300.00 per year LESS to operate than the drilled pipe. That means the Air Knife will have paid for itself in operating costs in just under 21 days.

To put that even FURTHER into perspective, the ~300 SCFM reduction in compressed air consumption is approximately 75HP worth of a typical industrial air compressor load. It’s not uncommon for a mid-to-large sized company to have more than one air compressor, and 50HP is a common size for a backup compressor. If that was the case in the facility that my technician caller was auditing, he’d be letting them know that this $533.00 investment that’s going to save them over $9,000.00 a year is ALSO going to allow them to shut down one of their air compressors. Completely.

So, THAT’S what’s so awful about a drilled pipe. If you have any in your facility, we should talk.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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