Tag: adjustable air nozzle

Save Money With Engineered Products, Then Save More Money With Rebates

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

One morning last summer, I turned on the water in the shower and waited for it to warm up. And waited…and waited. It was clear something was wrong, so I checked the water heater to find it emptying its contents into the floor drain, through the bottom of the tank, which I found later had rusted away. Between my better-than-average plumbing skills, having a son home from college, and finding out I could keep about $800 in my pocket if I bought a new one and replaced it myself, I woke the boy up (which turned out to be one of the more difficult tasks in the process), drove to my friendly neighborhood home improvement center, and bought myself a new water heater, and we had hot water by the time my wife got home from work that afternoon. Considering the way it started, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Not only was it more efficient (and therefore cheaper to run) than the one I replaced, the water heater I bought also qualified for a rebate, which increased my savings on the project to almost $900. That was some FANTASTIC icing on an already pretty decent cake.

Rewards like this for being energy conscious have been routinely offered by utility companies for years now. One time, I got a box of LED light bulbs, enough weather stripping for TWO houses the size of mine, and water-conserving shower heads, for free, from my electric company as part of a home energy audit. That was a pretty good day too.

Many utility companies across the country have similar programs for residential customers, and commercial ones too. Duke Energy (my free light bulb folks), for example, has a program they call Smart$aver that offers rebates and other incentives to companies for making energy-efficient improvements. Equipment that qualifies for these incentives includes process pumping systems, insulation for injection molding machinery & pellet dryer ducts, low friction v-belts for rotating machinery, and compressed air equipment.

That last one is what I wanted to write about today. It includes improvements to the supply side:

  • Receiver tanks
  • Cycling air dryers
  • Zero-loss condensate drains
  • Compressed air system audits

And the demand side:

EXAIR can help you out with the ones on the demand side. Consider:

Ultrasonic Leak Detector: this handheld device allows you to quickly & easily find leaks in your compressed air system.

EXAIR Model 9207 Ultrasonic Leak Detector filters out audible sound waves and focuses on the ultrasonic sound generated when compressed air finds its way out of a loose fitting, crack, etc. The parabolic disc (left) lets you find the area of the leak(s) and the tube extension (right) directs you to the precise location.
The copper tube used to have a crimped end that was aimed at the part in the chuck. They simply cut it off and used a compression fitting to install the Super Air Nozzle.

Super Air Nozzles: not only will these products get you a rebate, they’ll cost less to operate and will ensure OSHA compliance with regard to your use of compressed air. And they’ll do it quieter, to boot.

Replacing open-ended blow offs with Super Air Nozzles is oftentimes quick and easy. Compression fittings can be used to install them directly onto the ends of existing copper tubing. Stay Set Hoses can replace modular hose, which is great for machine tool coolant delivery but often misapplied for air blowing.

And frankly, I think the engineered products just look better too.

The Duke Energy Smart$aver program is for their customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. If that’s not you, though, North Carolina State University’s NC Clean Energy Technology Center has a comprehensive Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency – DSIRE – that’ll help you find what’s available in your area.

Compressed air isn’t free. Heck, it isn’t even cheap. If you want to find out how much you can save by optimizing your compressed air system in Six Steps, give me a call. And if you want to sweeten the deal with rebates and incentives, contact your local utility company.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Identify Real Compressed Air Savings Through EXAIR’s Efficiency Lab

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Many customers may not have the means to test the air consumption of their blowoff solutions. With compressed air being the most expensive utility in a manufacturing facility, it’s important to identify places where you can save money on your overall operating costs. EXAIR manufactures a wide variety of products intended to help you reduce your compressed air usage. If you’re not able to accurately measure the consumption in your own shop, we invite you to send the products to EXAIR for testing. With EXAIR’s Award-Winning Efficiency Lab, just simply box them up and send them to our warehouse in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Once we receive it, our engineers will complete some in-depth testing to determine the compressed air consumption, sound level, and force that your current solution provides. With this information, we’ll be able to compare it to an EXAIR Engineered Solution. This way, we ensure that you receive the best, safest solution possible also capable of saving money through reduced air consumption and improved efficiency.  We’ll send you back a comprehensive report that’ll help you to make the best decision for your company.

I’ve recently been working with a customer that sent in one of the nozzles they’re using across all their CNC machines. They wanted us to test it out and see if we’d be able to offer them something that could reduce their overall compressed air usage. The nozzle was one of the cheap plastic varieties and was attached to a commonly used modular hose. This type of modular hose is not designed for operating under high pressures. These hoses are more suitable for liquid coolant or air that is at or below atmospheric pressure.

After testing, we found that at 80 psig the nozzle consumed 3.85 SCFM and produced a force of 1.92 oz. We also noticed that after 60 psig, the nozzle began to leak due to a poor seal where the nozzle met the brass hex. The EXAIR nozzle most suitable to replace this was the 1108SS. At just 2.5 SCFM at 80 psig, replacing the plastic nozzle with an engineered solution saves them 35% of their overall consumption for this blowoff. With close to 1000 of these nozzles in operation, the air savings can add up quickly!!

In addition to increasing efficiency, replacing these nozzles also greatly increases overall worker safety. The sound level is reduced from 73 dBA to just 58 dBA and EXAIR’s nozzles also adhere to OSHA 1910.242(b). The plastic nozzles could be dead-ended, posing a hazard that can result in costly fines. These fines are assessed per infraction, so having multiple non-compliant nozzles can easily get very expensive if you’re subject to an unannounced visit by an OSHA inspector.

If you think you may have an opportunity to improve upon your existing blowoff methods, give us a call. We’ll be happy to take a closer look and have you send the product back to EXAIR for a quick trial in our Efficiency Lab. You’ll be glad you did!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mal: TylerDaniel@exair.com

Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

More About Compressed Air Safety

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

We all know how crucial safety is in the workplace. Most companies conduct some type of annual safety training, and a key takeaway from these sessions is that safety isn’t just the job of a few individuals; it’s everyone’s responsibility. At EXAIR, we take safety very seriously. Many of our products are designed with safety as a priority, including our Safety Air Guns, which highlight our commitment to this principle. This focus is essential because using compressed air can pose health risks if not handled correctly.

In the U.S., OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is the agency that enforces regulations to ensure safe and healthy work environments. They have the authority to impose hefty fines for any violations. When it comes to compressed air, two common violations involve air guns and blow-off devices, as outlined in 29CFR 1910.242(b) regarding dead-end pressure/chip shielding and 29CFR 1910.95(a) concerning maximum noise exposure limits.

The first regulation, 29CFR 1910.242(b), pertains to hand-held tools. It specifies that blow-off devices should not be used at pressures exceeding 30psig if the compressed air can become dead-ended. If there’s no escape route for the air, it can penetrate the skin and lead to an air embolism. A straightforward solution is to drill a hole to provide an alternate escape path, although this can introduce other safety concerns, which we’ll cover later. EXAIR’s air nozzles are designed with fins that allow air to escape safely, preventing blockage by your skin. This means you can confidently use the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles at pressures above 30psig.

The second regulation, 29CFR 1910.95(a), outlines the maximum sound levels that a person can safely be exposed to. Prolonged exposure to high sound levels can lead to permanent hearing damage. This is where the cross-drilled nozzle doesn’t quite meet the mark. While it’s safe for dead-end pressure, the noise from the turbulent airflow is quite loud. In contrast, EXAIR’s nozzles are designed to pull in surrounding air, creating a much quieter laminar flow. For instance, our Model 1210 Safety Air Gun, which features the Model 1100 Nozzle, operates at just 74dBA, well below the noise exposure limit for an 8-hour shift.

Model 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air is fitted with an EXAIR Super Air Nozzle. We can also supply it with a Rigid Extension and Chip Shield (right).

If you’re serious about compressed air safety, EXAIR’s range of safe, quiet, and efficient Safety Air Guns and Air Nozzles is an excellent option for your facility. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about this or any other compressed air applications you might have!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Banner image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Adjustability and Precision w/ EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles & Stay Set Hoses

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

If you’ve been tasked with reducing operating costs in your plant, upgrading your blowoffs to EXAIR’s Engineered Air Nozzles & Jets might be just the ticket. When replacing a homemade or inefficient solution, EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles can save you as much as 80% of your compressed air usage.

An open copper pipe or tube, even if “flattened” as we’ll commonly see, wastes an excessive amount of compressed air. This wasted compressed air can create problems in the facility due to unnecessarily high energy costs and the pressure drop that can be experienced affecting other processes. In addition to simply using too much compressed air, an open pipe or tube will often produce sound levels in excess of 100 dBA. At these sound levels, according to OSHA, permanent hearing damage will occur in just 2 hours of exposure.

By simply replacing the open tubes and pipe with an EXAIR Super Air Nozzle, you can quickly reduce air consumption AND reduce the sound level. Sound level isn’t the only thing an OSHA inspector is going to be concerned about regarding an open pipe blowoff, in addition OSHA 1910.242(b) states that a compressed air nozzle used for blowoff or cleaning purposes cannot be dead-ended when using with pressures in excess of 30 psig. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to use an air gun with 30 psig fed to it, but the effectiveness of it is dramatically reduced. This is why there needs to be a device installed that’ll prevent it from being dead-ended so that you can operate at a higher pressure.

EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles are designed with fins that serve two purposes. They help to entrain ambient air from the environment, allowing us to maximize the force and flow from the nozzle but keeping the compressed air consumption minimal. In addition, these fins are what prevent the nozzle openings from being completely blocked off. Using an OSHA-compliant compressed air nozzle for all points where a blowoff operation is being performed should be a priority. Each individual infraction will result in a fine if you’re unfortunate enough to be the victim of an unannounced OSHA inspection.

If your process involves numerous different products with varying dimensions, you might need a way to adjust each blowoff based on the material being run. With our Stay Set Hoses, this can be achieved quickly and easily without the need for any tools or a long shutdown.

EXAIR’s Stay Set Hoses are available from 6”-36” in length with ¼ NPT male threads on each end, or a ¼ NPT male on one end and 1/8 NPT female on the other. The Stay Set Hoses are rigid and allow you to maintain precise positioning of the blow off nozzle. The hoses have “memory” and will not creep or bend. They’re easily repositioned as well, making them an ideal solution for applications that may require frequent repositioning due to varying parts.

All of these products are available to ship same-day with an order received by 2:00 ET from stock. Give one a try today!

Tyler Daniel

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

X: @EXAIR_TD