Tag: aerospace

Application Database: Aerospace.

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

EXAIR uses many different methods to connect with our customers.  We have our website, social media, blogs, publications, etc.  We like to share solutions for some of the most common pneumatic problems in the industry.  EXAIR generated a large collection of application information where EXAIR products have solved problems and improved processes, and we placed them in a database.  We organized them by Application and by Industry.  In this blog, I will share an application within the Aerospace industry and how you can find it as well.

The aerospace industry needed help cleaning the wings on an airplane after washing.  The use of rags and squeegees was time-consuming and could scratch the surface of the wing.  They were looking for a non-contact way to clean the surface quickly and efficiently.  They contacted EXAIR, as we are the leaders in this industry.  To reach across the surface, I recommended the model 110272PKI 72” Aluminum Super Air Knife Kit with a Plumbing Kit installed.  The plumbing kit makes it easy to properly install compressed air to this long air knife.  The kit adds a filter, regulator, and a shim set to help control the force of the Super Air Knife to optimize blow-off.  This company was able to mount this to a rodless cylinder to move the Super Air Knife along the entire length of the wing.  Drying and cleaning the surface without touching the exterior, making it a great way to get the wings to the next step in the process.   

EXAIR offers many solutions for many types of industries by reducing costs and improving processes.  EXAIR has these solutions in a library on our website.  If you are part of the Aerospace industry, it can be beneficial for you.  It is a “been there, done that” solution that you can take advantage of. 

Here is how you can find this library.  First, you will have to sign in to the EXAIR website.  Click HERE to log in.  Once you fill in the proper information, you can then retrieve a great number of resources about the EXAIR products that we manufacture.   The Application database is located under the Resources drop-down tab (reference photo below) and at Applications.  

At the Application Search Library, we have over one thousand applications that we reference.  In the left selection pane, we organized them under two categories: Application and Industry.  

Scroll down in the Industry selection pane until you come to the sub-category: Aerospace.  If you do not find it, you can select the Expand button to open up more categories.  We have other applications as well that may relate to your specific process if you scroll up and down the list, like Automotive and Aviation, as examples.   

Why is this important?  If you are a plant manager or owner, the value of the Application Database can help your current processes with pre-qualified results.  Within the Aerospace industry, simple solutions can be found to address those “nagging” issues that you see every day.  For crisis situations and shutdowns, EXAIR categorized these applications in a way to reference them quickly and easily.  And since EXAIR carries a high volume of stocked items, we can get the parts to you very quickly.  

In today’s market, companies are always looking for ways to cut costs, increase productivity, and improve safety.  EXAIR can offer engineered products to do exactly that.  With the “been there and done that” solutions already described in the Application Database, you can have confidence in finding a way to solve pneumatic issues.  I created another blog about Agriculture to show the variations that we can offer. If you do not sign up at http://www.EXAIR.com and take advantage of these offerings, you will be missing out on a great tool to optimize your compressed air system.  And for the customer above, they were able to meet their requirements as well as the deadline that they had.  If you cannot find a solution, an Application Engineer at EXAIR is available to help you. 

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

“It’s Not Rocket Science”, or How Compressed Air Has Straightforward Applications In Aerospace

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

On the submarine I served on, many of us used math, specific to our jobs. Torpedo (and missile) fire control, navigation, reactor operations…even meal cooking…involved certain formulas to accomplish particular tasks. One formula we all knew and kept near & dear to our hearts, though, was:

Number of surfaces = Number of dives

And those who fly aircraft and spacecraft, in – and out of – the atmosphere, have a similar formula:

Number of landings = Number of takeoffs

While this certainly requires a great deal of skill of the operators (as does diving and surfacing a submarine), it also takes a great deal of technical acumen in the engineering and construction of those aircraft & spacecraft (and warships). Terms like “aircraft grade” inspire a high degree of confidence in the integrity of materials, and rightly so – the quality standards that manufacturers and suppliers are held accountable to are stringent and inviolate. That’s why aerospace professionals need reliable, durable, and effective equipment to do their jobs.

EXAIR Corporation has been providing this kind of equipment to the aerospace industry (and others) since 1983. Here are some examples of the applications we’ve worked with “steely eyed missile men” to solve:

  • A jet engine manufacturer makes a titanium assembly consisting of a honeycomb shaped extrusion bonded to a rigid sheet. The cells of the honeycomb are only 1/8” wide, and 3/8” deep. After fabrication, they’re washed & rinsed, and the tiny cells tend to hold water. They would invert & tap the assembly to try to get the water out, but that wasn’t always effective and occasionally led to damaging the assembly. To reduce the chance of damage (and loss) of an assembly, they built a cleaning station, using EXAIR Model HP1125 2” High Power Super Air Nozzles and Model 9040 Foot Pedals, for hands-free control of the high force blow out of the honeycomb cells. The results were increased production, decreased defects, and lower labor costs.
  • A machine shop makes composite material parts for the aerospace industry. Static charge would build up, causing the shavings to cling to most of the surfaces inside the machine. The vacuum system was unable to overcome the force of the static charge to remove it, so they called EXAIR. Our expertise in static elimination led to the specification of a Model 8494 Gen4 Stay Set Ion Air Jet System to direct ionized air onto the tool during cutting. This eliminated the static as it was generated on the shavings, allowing the vacuum system to perform as advertised. Not only did it make for a cleaner work station, the air flow provided cooling for the cutting tool, improving performance & extending life.
  • If a company works with metal parts, there’s a decent chance they operate a welding machine, and those things make smoke & fumes that, at best, are a nuisance, and at worst, are toxic. An airplane repair shop that has to weld in tight spaces needed a convenient, portable, compact way to evacuate the welding smoke and fumes. They chose a Model 120024 4” Super Air Amplifier. They’re capable of pulling in over 700 SCFM, and with a sound level of only 73dBA and lightweight aluminum construction, they’re an ideal fit for this application.
  • Certain satellites have components whose batteries must be fully charged to ensure that everything works just right. Because of the heat that charging generates, they couldn’t be charged with the spacecraft on the launch pad without cooling. Conventional methods of providing cold air (refrigerant based or cold water chillers) are too bulky, so they instead use a Model 3230 Medium Vortex Tube, capable of providing 2,000 Btu/hr worth of cooling air flow. This enables them to charge the battery until just prior to launch, making sure the batteries are as fully charged as possible, prior to deployment.
  • While the lion’s share of Vortex Tube applications involve the use of their cold flow, a number of folks do use the hot air flow, with great success. A major material supplier to the aircraft & aerospace industry makes a flexible, porous strand of material that, after fabrication, passes through a wash tank prior to cutting to size. They wanted to speed up the drying time, but it was impractical to use electrically powered hot air blowers or heat guns. By using an EXAIR Model 3275 Large Vortex Tube set to a 70% Cold Fraction, they’re able to blow a little over 22 SCFM of 220°F air onto the strand, which effectively dries it to their specification, quickly & safely.
These are some of the EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products used in the aerospace industry.

Exacting jobs call for safe, efficient, and reliable tools. Even if your job “isn’t rocket science”, the value of the right tool cannot be stressed enough. If you use – or want to use – compressed air for such a task, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook

“Math Wall” image courtesy of João Trindade, Creative Commons License

A Super Air Knife Benefits Aerospace Manufacturing

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

The aerospace industry has a high demand for high quality materials and can often be the leading users of high-quality materials. Since these sort of materials are typically very expensive it should be no surprise that manufacturers of aerospace parts are always looking for ways to gain efficiency within their processes. Today’s blog offers insight into how one aerospace company optimized its performance.

1 – Airplane Interior

A manufacturer of passenger plane interiors contacted us looking to improve their feed of material in and out of presses. They manufactured aircraft plywood and struggled with a hands-free way to help “float” the sheets during loading and unloading. They also spent a good amount of time waiting for the sheet to cool enough to handle for removal. These presses opened a minimal amount and were pressing the layers of the sheet together and then needed to be slid out of the press and moved on to the next process. The operators would use a handheld blowgun to try and blow under the sheet to move and adjust its positioning however they were then left with only one hand to do the positioning which became cumbersome. After the sheet was pressed they would blow with the same gun again and attempt to cool down the handling location and then drag it back out of the press. This was not a safe or efficient method to handle these sheets.

To improve the process this manufacturer installed a Super Air Knife. The opening on the press was 6′ wide, so they used a 72″ Super Air Knife w/ Plumbing Kit Installed Kit on one press as a test run. The knife was fed from a line that was outfitted with a solenoid valve that tied into a sensor already existing on their press so the air would only be fired when called for by the operator. While the knife did consume more air per minute of operation they were able to reduce the overall time air was being used for loading because the operator now had both hands to work with the sheet.

A 72″ Super Air Knife w/ Plumbing Kit Installed blowing debris off a part being laser cut.

Once the process was completed and the press opened the knife would turn on again to cool the sheet, then within a few seconds, the operator would reach in and again be able to easily float the sheet out. This was all made possible by the low profile design of the Super Air Knife not inhibiting the range of motion the operators had and not having to block the limited work envelope they had at the machine.

With this test machine improving production time, operator satisfaction, and enabling safer machine operation the company elected to implement a program installing the 72″ Super Air Knives on each one of their presses. If you would like to discuss any point of use compressed air application that needs improvement or isn’t as safe or efficient as you would like in your facility, contact an Application Engineer.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

1 – Timofejev, Aleksandrs – Turkish Airlines, TK015, Instanbul- Sao Paulo- Buenos Aires – 16 June 2013, retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turkish_Airlines,TK015,_Istanbul-_Sao_Paulo-_Buenos_Aires-_panoramio.jpg

Compressed Air Use in the Aerospace Industry

Published on by Leave a comment

EXAIR’s products have been used for a very large selection of applications in almost every industry.  Today I want to highlight a few that pertain to the Aerospace Industry.

First – a quick lesson on how to access the Applications database– Be sure to Register and then Log In

From the main page, hover the mouse pointer over ‘KNOWLEDGE BASE‘ and the pop-up menu will appear as seen below.  Select ‘APPLICATIONS’ Website Applications.png

On the left hand side of the screen you will see a gray navigation pane that shows Application with a list underneath.  Scroll down the main page and you will see a second heading in the navigation pane labeled “Industry”.  You can select your industry from the list provided.  For today’s example we will select Aerospace.

Industry_App_Database
The Industry section of the Application Database is found on the left hand side of the screen in the navigation pane.

Once the industry is selected there will be a new list of applications that are displayed in the center of the page.   Simply select the application you would like more information on and the details will display.

Below, we showcase the application from a machine manufacturer for the Aerospace industry.   This customer manufactured the production equipment of a flexible, porous material that is continuously passed through a wash tank prior to cutting to length.  They were interested in speeding the drying process of this strand, and considered blowing hot air onto it.  It was not feasible to install an electrically powered hot air blower or gun.  They needed an air flow of approximately 15 SCFM at 200°F, and had 70 psig air supply with a large volume available.  They utilized a Vortex Tube installed over the strand after it exited the dip tank.   The Vortex Tube was oriented with the hot air exhaust blowing on to the strand to dry the strand.  The customer stated that they not only met their expectations but exceeded the original hopes and were able to dry the product quicker and safer than expected.

Vortex_Tube_Drying_Material
Selecting any of the listed applications in the center of the screen will display the details of that particular application.

This is just one of many applications that are showcased in the Application Database for the Aerospace industry.   Those are just a small sampling of the thousands of applications that can be researched through the database.  If you would like to share your application to the database, feel free to contact an Application Engineer.

If you have questions about any of the 15 different EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product lines, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or any of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Brian Bergmann
Application Engineer
Send me an email
Find us on the Web 
Like us on Facebook
Twitter: @EXAIR_BB