Tag: 1910.242

Award Winning Compressed Air Nozzle Saves Hundreds of Dollars Annually

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

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EXAIR’s 1 Inch Flat Super Air Nozzle won the Gold Award for Compressed Air from Plant Engineering in 2014. We won the award for the immense savings that our customers reap by using this nozzle to replace open blow offs. While saving compressed air, we also reduce noise level and comply with an OSHA regulation 192.242(b).  Do not leave that blow off open. It is costing you everyday in dollars; it may cost you more in OSHA fines later, and it will cost your employees hearing later.

A 1/4″ copper tube can use 33 SCFM at 80 PSIG of inlet pressure. This homemade blow off will use 1,980 standard cubic feet per hour. Typical industrial compressed air cost $0.25 per 1,000 standard cubic feet.  That 1/4 copper tube is costing you $0.50 every hour to run. Each year, one 1/4″ copper tube costs $2,970*.

The 1 inch Flat Super Air Nozzle, model 1126, uses 10.5 SCFM or 22.5 SCFM less than 1/4″ Copper tube.  Saving your company 22.5 SCFM, is the same as saving $0.34 every hour or $2,025 every year.*  Saving 22.5 SCFM also, means that your compressor system doesn’t have to work as hard.  A 5 HP compressor will put out 20 SCFM, so replacing one 1/4″ Copper Tube with a model 1126 will save you from upgrading compressor system as your company expands.

Regardless of the $2,025 you just saved by replacing the homemade blow offs with engineered nozzle, it is also an industry best practice because it can lower the noise exposure for personnel and prevent any harm from dead end pressure.  OSHA standard 29 CFR – 1910.95(a) requires that if an employee is exposed to greater than 100 dBA for 2 hours, he or she needs to wear hearing protection.  A 1/4″ copper tube will easily exceed 100 dBA.  The model 1126 will lower the noise level to 77 decibel, 13 dBA lower than the OSHA requirements for an 8 hour day.

Finally, the 1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle cannot be dead ended, which protects your employees from serious injury. In the event, that a compressed air orifice is blocked with no means of escape, air may enter the bloodstream from an open cut or wound in the skin. Compressed air must be kept below 30 PSIG to eliminate this danger when using an open pipe, tube or many commercial air nozzles. With EXAIR nozzles, pressure to the nozzle  can remain at line pressure and produce the maximum velocity and force for a successful application.

*Assuming 24 hours a day and 250 working days

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW

Floating Plates With Compressed Air

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work with a customer who was familiar with our product and was looking to roll out EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzle in various parts of the plant. Before purchasing our products, the customer was using (4) open 5/16″ aluminum tubing to move or “float” a 12 inches by 12 inches plate of aluminum. This plate is .187 inches thick and needed to be moved six inches against the wall of their conveyor. The (4) open tubes moved the plate, but the customer had some safety concerns. First, the open pipes violated the OSHA standard 1910.242(b) that any open pipe that can be dead ended must only be pressurized to 30 PSIG. Second, to move the plate successfully the shop pressure needed increase to 100 PSIG which increases the amount of load on the compressor and could lead to higher maintenance in the future. Finally, the noise level of open pipes was well over 110 dBA which was another OSHA violation.

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Considering all of these problems the customer contacted me, looking for an air nozzle to use instead of the open pipe. After a short discussion we decided to try (3) HP 1125 nozzles. Once the customer installed the air nozzles, they only used 2 of the air nozzles, and they were able to move the plate easily across the conveyor. This netted them several key results. The most noticeable at the plant was how quiet the operation became. Instead of dealing with noise levels in excess of 110 dBa (which is equivalent to the noise level of a turbo-fan aircraft at take off)  the HP1125 comes in at 83 dBA which is roughly the noise of a milling machine.  This was much more pleasant to the operator and any plant passersby.  The most important was the operation now complied with OSHA safety requirement of 1910.242(b).  Because of the width of the Flat Nozzle and the overhang of the cap, the nozzle can not be dead ended.  Since the unit can not be dead ended, pressure above 30 PSIG can be safely used.  Finally, the most economically result was that the air savings for the units.

The 5/16 tube had an ID of .183 and was 18″ long. When supplying it with 100 PSIG of compressed air, it will flow 22.8 SCFM of compressed air, so the customer was using 91.3 SCFM. The HP1125 nozzle uses 37 SCFM at 80 PSIG, so they were able to use 74 SCFM, which means each minute they were using 17.3 fewer cubic feet. At a cost of $0.25 per 1,000 Cubic feet, the HP1125 saved $0.26 per hour or $6.23 per day or $1,557 per year with 250 working days.

Replacing (4) open tubes with (2) HP1125 Flat Super saved $1,557 per year in compressed air savings, an OSHA violation, employees hearing, and lowered the system pressure from 100 psi to 80 psi.  Needless to say the customer was sold on the benefits on our products, and is looking for any more open pipes in his facility.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW

Safety – When You Least Expect It You Need it Most

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The cold weather kept me indoors this weekend and I conceded to being a couch potato in front of the TV. One of the shows I watched was the lumberjack competitions – and let me tell you, those guys are crazy. Standing on a board wedged into a notch in the side of a tree, up 40 feet in the air and swinging an ax is just not safe. But, that was the way it was done in the early days before mandated safety rules.

Afterward, I watched a little news only to see hundreds of motorists stranded in their cars due to inclement weather. Folks were on their way home from work and ended up sleeping in their cars. I know it is recommended that you carry an emergency kit in your car but I never gave it any thought it would be needed it in the city. Then I was jolted from my couch when the smoke alarms went off. I forgot about my buffalo wings in the oven. Wow! What if I had left the house?

In the workplace, compressed air safety should be a top priority. Open compressed air lines are extremely noisy and can cause permanent hearing loss which is addressed  OSHA Standard 29 CFR – 1910.95 (a) regarding the allowable noise exposure. High pressure compressed air can pierce the skin and enter the blood stream, causing a dangerous blood embolism – this is why OSHA has standard CFR 1910.242(b), 30 PSI maximum dead end pressure for compressed air blow off.

One of the main issues with regulating all of your compressed air lines to less than thirty psig is, thirty psig does not provide a very effective blow off.  With EXAIR’s  engineered nozzles the air can be kept at higher line pressure and still meet or exceed the OSHA standard. Higher pressure equate to higher velocity and more force upon your application. Because of this, we can solve the application, keep compressed air to a minimum, and keep safety a top priority.

Air Nozzle and Safety Air Gun

EXAIR nozzles are safe, provide very effective blow off, and reduce compressed air consumption. By design they produce output flow up to 25 times the compressed air consumed. For more information or help with your application call our application engineers at 1-800-903-9247

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax (513) 671-3363
Web: www.exair.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair