Tag: Accessories

EXAIR Has Solutions For Skin Problems (Really)

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The EXAIR Chip Trapper filters solid debris from your coolant that can not only clog the supply lines to the tooling, but also provide a LOT of surface area for the growth of bacteria. This can really foul the air in a machine shop, and sometimes, it can mess with your skin, causing a rash or infection. Honestly, this isn’t a HUGE problem…I’ve fielded a handful of calls about it over the years, though, so when I got the call from a machinist last week who wanted to talk about a possible solution for a skin problem, I immediately thought of the Chip Trapper.

Well, immediately after I thought about this old commercial (I’ve written before about how I watched way too much television growing up. Don’t judge.)

Turns out, though, his problem wasn’t bacterial – it was an allergic reaction he was having with a specific additive in the coolant used on a particular machine tool. He mentioned that it was a mist coolant application, so I immediately thought of the Cold Gun Aircoolant System.

Of, course, right after I thought about this commercial (seriously; stop judging.)

To my knowledge, it’s the first time we’ve ever applied a Cold Gun to solve a skin problem – we’re almost always looking at them to avoid the mess of coolant spray, or to increase tool life in situations where traditional machine tool coolant is impractical (or impossible) to use.

With four distinct models to choose from, we've got a Cold Gun System to meet your needs.
With four distinct models to choose from, we’ve got a Cold Gun System to meet your needs.

If you’d like to find out how EXAIR products can save you from:

*Excessive compressed air consumption
*High sound levels
*Static charge problems
*Heat damage to your electronics
*Labor intensive “bucket and ladder” bulk conveyance operations
*Trips to the dermatologist (no, really)

Then give me a call.  We can even talk about vintage TV commercials (I won’t judge either.)

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Save Money By Using Your Own Thermostat? Well…

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Last week, I wrote about what a great idea it is to use a thermostat with a Cabinet Cooler System. I’ll let another cat out of the bag right now and tell you that there are less expensive thermostats than ours. But just like the savings you might realize on the purchase by foregoing a thermostat, using a poorly specified thermostat can also be the last savings you see.

In a Cabinet Cooler System application, we’re refrigerating air. This makes for a cool, clean, and dry atmosphere for your electrical & electronic components to operate in.

UL Listed & CE Compliant, EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems maintain NEMA 4, 4X, or 12 integrity.
UL Listed & CE Compliant, EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems maintain NEMA 4, 4X, or 12 integrity.

Not all thermostats are designed to read air temperature – in fact, a LOT of common, commercially available thermostats are designed for use with liquid. Using these to control air temperature will lead to slow response times. That means one of two things will happen:

When the air inside the enclosure is cooled to the thermostat’s set-point temperature, it won’t shut off the compressed air flow to the Cabinet Cooler unit, resulting in unnecessary compressed air consumption.  And that’s a shame.

OR:

When the air inside the enclosure is heated to the thermostat’s set-point temperature, it won’t start the compressed air flow to the Cabinet Cooler unit, resulting in a potential overheating of those expensive…or critical…or both…electronic components.  And that’s a REAL shame.

We don’t want to see you using any more compressed air than you need to.  And we SERIOUSLY don’t want to see you fry your electronics.  If you’d like to find out more about EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Save Money By Not Using A Thermostat? Well…

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I’m going to let the cat out of the bag right now and tell you that a Cabinet Cooler System with Thermostat Control costs more to purchase than one without.  So yes, by passing on the Thermostat Control, you WILL save money on the purchase.  But that may be your ONLY realization of any money saved.  Let’s consider:

Recently, a customer submitted a Cabinet Cooler Sizing Guide – our simple guide for gathering key pieces of information about the state of customer’s enclosures. An EXAIR Application Engineer can quickly & accurately calculate the actual heat load of an electrical enclosure, and specify the appropriate Cabinet Cooler System, when given the information.

You can submit your data via email or fax, or you can call an EXAIR Application Engineer for immediate assistance.
You can submit your data via email or fax, or you can call an EXAIR Application Engineer for immediate assistance.

I calculated the total heat load of their enclosure to be 2,200 Btu/hr, so I specified a Model 4340 NEMA 12 Cabinet Cooler System rated for 2,800 Btu/hr, with Thermostat Control.  At this point, we’re occasionally asked about the down-side of not using a Thermostat.

The calculated heat load of 2,200 Btu/hr is 78.5% of the Model 4340’s 2,800 Btu/hr cooling capacity.  That means, theoretically, the Thermostat Control will turn off the compressed air supply 21.5% of the time:

40 SCF x 60 min x 8 hr x 5 days x 52 weeks x 21.50% = 1,073,280 SCF
min hr day week year year

At EXAIR, we know, first hand, the benefit of saving a million Standard Cubic Feet of compressed air.  We use a general thumbrule which holds that 1,000 SCF of compressed air costs $0.25 to generate.  So here it is, in dollars and cents:

1,073,280 SCF x $0.25 = $268.32 annual savings
year 1,000 SCF

In this example, the Thermostat Control will pay for itself within the first year.

Summer is approaching in the Northern Hemisphere.  If you’d like to find out more about how EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems can protect your electrical and electronic components from heat damage, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Keeping the Confusion Out of NPT Pipe Thread Dimensions

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I recently had the pleasure of helping a caller solve a problem with a Super Air Nozzle.  He had measured the opening on the outlet of his air gun, and ordered accordingly…unfortunately, he didn’t know that 3/8 NPT did NOT correspond to a 3/8″ diameter of a threaded fitting.  I explained the reason for this, a while back, in a blog entitled “When Is A Half Inch Not A Half Inch? When It’s Half Inch Pipe, Of Course!”

The ID of a 1/8 NPT threaded fitting is actually pretty close to 3/8". Here's a dimensions table that I reference often.
The ID of a 1/8 NPT threaded fitting is actually pretty close to 3/8″ (left.) Here’s a link to a dimensions table that I reference often to keep this (on right, a 3/8 NPT nozzle with an 1/8 NPT air gun) from happening.

 

As you can see, the Model 1105 3/8 NPT Super Air Nozzle will not fit the 0.405″ (not far at all from 3/8″ if measured with a ruler) ID of a 1/8 NPT threaded connection.  No matter; these are all catalog parts that we have plenty of stock on, so, after a brief discussion of pipe thread sizes, he got a Model 1103 1/8 NPT Super Air Nozzle, and it fits just fine:

IMG_5789
Model 1103 1/8 NPT (male) Super Air Nozzle installed in a 1/8″ NPT air gun.

Sometimes, an adapter is required for air guns that have straight threads.  Two common sizes for these are 5/8″-28 and 3/4″-32 – and we have adapters for both of these (call for details.) Other adapters are readily commercially available…you may find them in the plumbing aisle of your hardware store, or from a local pipe & pipe fitting supplier.  We’ve seen some air guns, though, that have a proprietary thread that doesn’t match up to anything else…in these cases, we have four types of Safety Air Guns on the shelf, ready to ship.

If you’d like to find out more about using quiet and efficient engineered Super Air Nozzles for your air gun applications, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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