Tag: adjustable

Just Needs A Little More To The Left

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

I’ve come across many applications where customers run multiple different parts or products along the same line, and each requires some form of blowoff before moving to the next stage. Too often, a system designed for just one specific part can’t keep up with the variations. Sometimes the “solution” ends up being to crank up the compressed air, which is wasteful and inefficient.

Instead of increasing air pressure or fabricating new mounts every time there’s a changeover, consider installing EXAIR’s Stay Set Hoses or Swivel Fittings.

            Stay Set Hoses are flexible and hold their shape once positioned, making them ideal for quickly adapting to different parts on the line. Available in 1/8″ and 1/4″ MNPT fittings (or a mix of both) and various lengths, these hoses can support anything from a Nano Super Air Nozzle to a Super Air Amplifier—or even a Super Air Knife. Repositioning them is easy: just bend the hose by hand to aim the airflow exactly where it’s needed for the new part.

                Swivel Fittings may be a better fit if your application doesn’t require much flexibility but still needs occasional fine-tuning. These allow up to 25 degrees of movement off axis, are made of durable 303 stainless steel, and help you easily refocus nozzles without a full tear down.

If your blowoff system isn’t keeping up with your line changes, it might be time to explore how Stay Set Hoses and Swivel Fittings can bring efficiency and adaptability to your process.       

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Application Spotlight! – Adjustable Air Amplifier Helps in a Messy Situation.

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Applications spotlights have become a great resource for our customers to “peak” behind the curtain. For this spotlight, let’s talk about Air Amplifiers and cellophane. Cellophane wrapping is a common mid-process way to protect products between steps in the manufacturing process. And even more often, to protect the final product.

When you unwrap the cellophane, it becomes pretty hard to dispose of, it can often be statically charged and not easily tossed in a garbage bin.

A recent customer came to us as they were removing thousands of products from their individual cellophane to bulk pack them for a big box store. This created a huge mess with mountains of trash as tall as the trash can and all over the floor.

Our suggestion was to use an Air Amplifier to carry the trash cellophane away from the unwrapping station to a trash bin with a filtered lid to trap the cellophane. We chose model 6043, 3″ Adjustable Air Amplifier. We chose this method as the Air Amplifier is designed to entrain a very large amount of air at its suction side, allowing the operator to simply get the cellophane near the suction point, and it would be pulled in with the surrounding air.

Mock up of how the station would look. The 6043 has a 3″ ID hose on the outlet that moves the blue cellophane 15 feet to a trash location. The operator in green would just have to get the plastic close and the Air Amplifier does the rest.

In addition to this application and ventilation/exhaust applications, Air Amplifiers can be used – just like our engineered Air Knives and Air Nozzles – as a useful solution for blow off, drying, cleaning, and cooling applications. If you’ve got questions about them (or any EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products), give me a call.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Cellophane wrapped Pastries courtesy of Anthony Easton via creative commons

What’s So Great About EXAIR Air Jets?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

For over 40 years now, EXAIR has been making engineered Air Nozzles and Air Jets for a wide range of industrial and commercial applications. Basically, if you need to blow air onto, into, towards, or through something, we’ve got something for that.

Our Super Air Nozzles seem to “get all the press” (based on an unscientific survey of the EXAIR Blog), and maybe they should, with their ease of installation onto the end of a pipe or tube that someone who’s never thought about the cost of compressed air has been using as a cheap to make but expensive to operate blowoff.

Compression fittings and Model 1100 Super Air Nozzles transformed the part ejection from “loud and wasteful” to “quiet and efficient.”

Like our engineered Super Air Nozzles, our Air Jet products use the Coanda effect to entrain enormous amounts of free air from the surrounding environment. While the Super Air Nozzles do this via an array of small holes recessed between a series of fins, the Air Jet uses an internal annular ring nozzle to draw the free air through its throat. There are a number of applications where either a Super Air Nozzle or an Air Jet can be used efficiently, safely, and quietly. Some jobs, however, benefit from the specific design of one or the other. Since this is an Air Jets blog, I’m going to focus on them:

  • Powerful, directed air stream. This makes EXAIR Air Jets ideal for part ejection, chip removal, and part drying.
Model 6013 Brass High Velocity Air Jet (left) blows rinse water off beverage cans on a high speed conveyor. An array of Model 6013SS SS High Velocity Air Jets (right) dries a finned component after washing.
  • Reliable and efficient blowoff. With no moving parts, as long as you supply them with clean compressed air, they’ll operate darn near indefinitely, maintenance free. And they’ll use a LOT less of that compressed air than similarly sized open-ended blowoff devices too, thanks to engineering:
Compressed air enters through the 1/8 MNPT fitting and discharges into the throat via an annular ring gap, where the Coanda profile of the plug directs the air towards the jet outlet (1). This primary, high velocity flow pulls in air from the entrainment plenum (2), creating a total developed flow up to 25 times the compressed air flow (3).
  • Safe to use. EXAIR Air Jets, like the rest of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products, are compliant with OSHA Standard 1910.242(b) which limits the downstream pressure at the nozzle or opening of a compressed air device used for cleaning purposes to 30psi. If you cover the entire outlet opening, the air simply flows out the entrainment plenum.
  • Remote positioning. Since both the inlet and outlet can be ducted, you can fit a 1″ ID hose over the entrainment plenum and run the other end to the location where you want to draw airflow from. This is beneficial if, for example, you want to position the Air Jet in a contaminated area, but want to eliminate any of that contamination from the Air Jet’s developed airflow. You can also fit a 1/2″ ID hose over the outlet to direct the airflow elsewhere.
  • Adjustability. For the Adjustable Air Jet, it’s right there in the name: the Plug can be threaded into, or out of, the body to reduce, or increase the annular ring nozzle’s gap, and hence, the airflow and force applied. There’s a micrometer gap indicator so you can set – and reset – the performance to different levels, as required. The High Velocity Air Jet’s annular ring nozzle gap is fixed with a shim (they come with a 0.015″ thick shim installed) but Shim Sets, containing one each of a 0.006″ and 0.009″ thick shim, can be used to make gross adjustments to the airflow and force applied. You can regulate the air supply pressure to either the Adjustable or High Velocity Air Jets to very precisely “dial in” the performance.
A 0.006″ or 0.009″ thick shim from the 6313 Air Jet Shim Set (top left) can be installed in a High Velocity Air Jet (bottom left) to put the Air Jet in a whole new performance band. You can do this to an Adjustable Air Jet (right) by turning the knurled ring on the plug to set (and reset) the air gap and hence the performance.
  • Materials of construction. Both the Adjustable and High Velocity Air Jets come in brass for general purpose applications, or 303SS for use in areas with high heat or corrosive elements in the environment.
The brass Air Jets (top) are rated for installation in areas with ambient temperatures up to 275°F, while the 303SS models (bottom) are good to 400°F.

If you’d like to find out more about EXAIR Air Jets, or how any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products can help you get the most out of your compressed air system, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Adjustable E-Vacs For All Kinds Of Vacuum Applications

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR makes three different engineered compressed air products that are capable of pulling vacuum:

  • Air Amplifiers generate a very high vacuum flow (up to 25 times the compressed air flow rate) but not very much vacuum head. This makes them great for fumes, smoke, and airborne dust.
  • Line Vacs generate a moderate vacuum flow and head so they can easily convey bulk solids.
  • E-Vac Vacuum Generators generate a high vacuum head, but not a lot of vacuum flow. They’re commonly used with Vacuum Cups in pick-and-place applications, or a number of other applications where you measure the required vacuum in inches of mercury (the Air Amplifiers’ and Line Vacs’ vacuum heads are measured in inches of water.)

Our Adjustable E-Vac Vacuum Generators are the ones that typically fall into the “number of other applications” category above. While the In-Line E-Vacs are compact and reliably generate rated vacuum on demand, the Adjustable E-Vacs have some distinct advantages in certain cases:

Larger throat diameter. In-Line E-Vacs have a very tight throat, which generally doesn’t matter if they’re just hooked to Vacuum Cups that’ll be placed on a relatively clean surface. The wider throat of the Adjustable E-Vacs means that they can pass small debris from less-than-pristine surfaces that a Vacuum Cup might lift, or shavings that might fall into a work holding fixture on a machine tool. They can even pass liquids, so they’re sometimes used for small spill cleanup.

Adjustability. It’s right in the name, of course, but it IS a big deal. While you can regulate the supply pressure of almost any compressed air operated device to vary the performance level, you can thread the plug into, or out of, the body of an Adjustable E-Vac to literally put it in a whole new performance band. This is beneficial if you’re picking up, or holding down, pieces of different sizes, shapes, and weights. Just loosen the locking collar, make the adjustment, tighten it back up, and it’s ready for use.

With four distinct models to choose from, we can specify one with the vacuum performance and adjustability of range needed for your application. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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