Tag: 3825

Hot Off The Press (Release): Adjustable Spot Cooler Provides Precise Industrial Cooling

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I got a new cell phone a few months ago. It was my first ‘upgrade’ in quite some time, and while it has some neat features (along with a bunch of stuff I’ll NEVER use), there was one glaring omission: a 1/8″ port for the cord of my trusty earbuds. I even took the protective case off, looking for it. After just barely managing to get the case back on, I bought myself my first ever wireless earbuds. After scanning the ‘quick reference’ guide, I steeled my reserve for the long & arduous process of getting them up and running. To my pleasant surprise, they were fully charged, and, right out of the case, started pairing with my new cell phone. I was drowning out the sound of my lawnmower to 1970s Heavy Metal in no time!

You know what else is ready to go, right out of the box? EXAIR’s Adjustable Spot Cooler System, that’s what. OK; it doesn’t automatically connect itself to your compressed air system, but once you hook an air hose up to it, it makes a flow of cold air instantly. With the Temperature Control Valve, you can change the cold air flow and temperature just as instantly. If the 25 SCFM Generator that comes installed doesn’t make enough flow – or if it makes too much – the Adjustable Spot Cooler System comes with two more Generators (15 SCFM and 30 SCFM) that’ll put it into a whole new performance band.

The Adjustable Spot Cooler incorporates a vortex tube to convert an ordinary 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 airstream (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.

I was excited to hear that the Adjustable Spot Coolers were the focus of our latest Press Release. With their ease of installation and operation, they’re ideal for a wide variety of applications:

  • Adjusting thermostats
  • Cooling solder
  • Setting hot melts
  • Cooling welding horns, machined or molded plastics, gas samples, etc.
Your choice of a system with a one outlet, or two outlet Cold Air Hose.

If you need a blast of cold air that can be precisely controlled, right at the source, look no further than the Adjustable Spot Cooler. If you have an application you’d like to discuss, 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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