Have you ever tried to remove a sticky substance with a putty knife? You scrape and scrape, then stop to remove the loose material. Then start scraping again that same area which has material remaining. It can be very time-consuming. And, if the material is on the floor, it can ergonomically hurt your back and knees.
A subcontractor that worked for an automotive company contacted EXAIR for a solution. They needed a faster, better, and easier way to remove tape from the floor. Personally, I have been through many automotive plants, and they have everything marked with tape. They use different sorts of tape to mark pedestrian walkways, machine locations, and fork truck lanes. So, when a work area gets new equipment or altered for better workflow, the tape has to be removed. And since downtime affects productivity, the work has to be done quickly. Their current mode of operation was for the staff members to work on the floor with hand scrapers to remove the tape.
The answer to the subcontractor’s problem was the EXAIR Soft Grip Super Air Scraper. This product uses a nozzle that combines a scraping blade with our 2” Flat Super Air Nozzle. It uses the mechanical force of a blade with the force of compressed air to remove stubborn sticky materials. The corrosion-resistant steel scraper is robust and durable, and they can be easily sharpened or replaced when worn. To add flexibility to the Super Air Scraper, a shim set can be used to increase the blowing force. This combination of the nozzle and the scraper is an effective and powerful way to remove material with compressed air.
To get pressurized air to this patent-pending nozzle, EXAIR attached the Super Air Scraper to our Soft Grip Air Gun. The Soft Grip Air Gun has an ergonomic soft handle and a full-grip trigger for hours of use without fatigue. We include different extensions for hard-to-reach applications ranging from 6” (152mm) to 72” (1,829mm) in length. With extensions that are 36” (914mm) and longer, EXAIR installs an additional foam grip sleeve. This gives more leverage for scraping material at a distance like at the floor level. Chip Shields can also be added to prevent blow-back onto the users.
For the subcontractor above, this was the perfect tool for their next assignment. I recommended the model 1244-36 Soft Grip Super Air Scraper which had a great length to reach the floor and a foam grip to force the blade under the tape. With the compressed air, it helped to keep the area clean during scraping and aided with the tape that was really stuck. They ordered six pieces, one for each staff member, to work the entire area to remove tape. The subcontractor was able to cut his scraping time by 75% as compared to the putty knife method above. And the staff members appreciated the need to not get on the floor.
To give some other areas for the Soft Grip Super Air Scraper, they can be used for removing gasket material, caulk, adhesives, paint, labels, and much more. If you have a “sticky” situation at your facility, an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to discuss it with you.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb
