Tag: air convey

Line Vac Air Operated Conveyors: What to Know When Specifying

Published on by bdwagesLeave a comment

So you are thinking about using a Line Vac… Is it time to replace that ladder and bucket, and automate? There are many factors involved when deciding to use a conveyor system such as EXAIR Line Vacs. First of all let’s take a look at your product that needs conveyed. Will the integrity of your media be compromised by adding this much air to it? How heavy is it? What type of (how much) surface area does it have?

You know your media better than most. You should be able to answer most of those questions pretty easily, but what about the weight? For the weight, we work best knowing the bulk density, or pounds per cubic foot. If you do not readily know, this is easily found by finding the weight of your media in a box (or container). Then take the total cubic inches of the box (L x W x H) and divide that by 1728 (cubic inches per cubic foot), this will give you the cubic feet of that box. Then you simply divide the weight by the cubic feet, and you now have the density.

Line Vacs can convey many things.

Next we need to focus on your conveyance run. We would like to know what type of container is your product sitting in? A super sack, a hopper, a drum, a box? And where is it going? How far away is the destination hopper, dumpster, assembly station, etc.? This will help us determine the type of fitting or tools necessary to extract or release the media. How high do you need to go? How far horizontally? Our Line Vacs, are amazing, but they do have their limits. We will also need to know if there are any turns, and at what angles. Turns are many times unavoidable, but will have an adverse effect on the conveyance run as the airflow is halted and or deflected. Is there a way to minimize or eliminate the turns?

The final question is; how many pounds per minute do you need to be conveyed?

With the size, mass, and geometry of your parts, along with the vertical lift length, and the horizontal conveyance length, added to the turns and twists, you are just about ready to call one of our our application engineers for recommendations. We have some comparison materials for conveyance rates, to get you close to your actual needs. Here are some published conveyance rates as well:

There is one more part to this equation. What type and size of Line Vac will you need? EXAIR has many types of Line Vacs to choose from. As with most products, we have options that take into consideration the temperature and the abrasiveness of your product. We also have options to fit the type of conveyance hose or pipe you want to use , such as sanitary fittings, or threaded. And since we manufacture these right here in Cincinnati, OH, we can make custom Line Vacs for customers fairly quickly. We have designed and manufactured them with custom bolt on flanges, special materials or inlet sizes to name a few.

EXAIR Line Vacs: For bulk material conveyance through lines from 3/8″ to 6″, in aluminum, 303SS, 316SS, or abrasion resistant hardened alloy, available from stock with the widest variety of connections in the industry.

Please do not hesitate to call. We will be happy to help you with any technical questions about our products.

Application Engineer

Brian Wages

EXAIR Corporation
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Yellow Ladder pic from OpenClipart-Vectors / 27385 & Bucket Pic from Jazella / 704 images on a Pixabay License

Why Is Ambient Air Entrainment Needed For Pneumatic Conveyance?

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

When attempting to convey material pneumatically it can sometimes not work as one may hope. This could be due to the lack of ambient air entrainment to generate the vacuum flow which lifts the material away and moves the material. The video above gives a brief example of this.

If you would like to discuss pneumatic conveying products or processes, please contact us. EXAIR’s Line Vac air operated conveyors are a great solution for manual “bucket and ladder” applications, hopper loading, scrap conveyance, media recovery and more!

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

EXAIR's Threaded Line Vac Family

What’s So Great About Threaded Line Vac Pneumatic Conveyors?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Conveyor systems come in many shapes, sizes, and configurations. They can be run at different speeds, and are made of various materials, depending what they’re carrying, and why they’re carrying it. And sometimes, they’re hilarious:

If you’re looking to move solids, in bulk, through pipe, there’s not a simpler way to do it than with an EXAIR Threaded Line Vac.  Like our ‘standard’ Line Vacs, they use compressed air to generate a powerful vacuum flow to get air behind the pieces and carry them along:

Instant conveyor – just add compressed air.

But, while the ‘standard’ Line Vacs are made for use with Conveyance Hose, the Threaded Line Vacs have male NPT threads so you can pipe them in line.  We have a range of options, depending on the nature of your applications:

  • Sizes: 3/8 NPT to 3 NPT.
  • Materials: aluminum, 303SS, 316SS, and hardened alloy.
  • Performance: aluminum, 303SS and 316SS Threaded Line Vacs are made for standard duty; the hardened alloy Heavy Duty Threaded Line Vacs offer higher vacuum performance as well as superior abrasion resistance.
  • Environment: the materials of construction listed above may be important because of the nature of the product being conveyed, but they also have different temperature ratings.  Our Stainless Steel Line Vacs also come in a High Temperature design, in case the material – or the environment – is particularly hot:
    • Aluminum: 275°F (135°C)
    • Heavy Duty Hardened Alloy: 400°F (204°C)
    • 303 or 316SS: 400°F (204°C)
    • High Temp 303 or 316SS: 900°F (482°C)

If you’ve got a conveyor application you’d like to discuss, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Let’s Go Fishing with EXAIR Sanitary Flange Line Vacs™

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

A group of us went to the northern part of Ohio to do some fishing.  We had a great time.  We caught a variety of fish; even some small ones like above.  We had one person that could fillet fish; and, we definitely let him do the work.  I enjoy eating fish, but I do not enjoy the fish bones.  If the fish is filleted correctly, finding a bone is rare.  Now, traveling from a small boat in Ohio to an international commercial fishing company, it is also important to keep the bones at a minimum.  A salmon processing plant contacted EXAIR about our Line Vacs for removing fish bones.

In 2014, this processing plant purchased two 1 ½” 316SS Line Vacs, model 6063-316, to remove bones from salmon fillets.  The Line Vacs were positioned after the “bone removal” rollers.  Cups that spanned across the salmon fillets were attached to the vacuum end of the Line Vacs.  They loved how the product worked without any moving parts, and how compact and reliable they were since they were in operation for over 6 years.  But they needed to increase fish production rates; so, they needed a higher conveyance rate to remove the bones.  They sent me a photo of their current process (reference below).

Deboning Process

The interesting thing was that they welded sanitary flanges to the ends of each Line Vac.  Sanitary flanges are great for mandatory and frequent cleaning.  And believe it or not, EXAIR introduced Sanitary Flange Line Vacs™ in yr2017.  At EXAIR, we are always progressing with new products to solve different issues in a variety of industries.  The Sanitary Flange Line Vacs were designed for food and pharmaceutical industries.  For this customer above, they were surprised and amazed that we added the Sanitary Flange Line Vacs to our product line.

So, now they would not have to weld flanges.  This would save them time from welding and buffering to remove any “catches” inside where bacteria could grow.  They wished to replace their current Line Vacs with 2” size Line Vacs to increase the throat diameter and conveyance rate.  Since they requested the 2” size, I recommend the model 161200-316.

Sanitary Line Vac Family

The Sanitary Flange Line Vacs can fit within sanitary piping systems to convert pipes into a useful conveyor for bulk material and waste removal.  They use an ISO2852 flange for easy disassembly and cleaning to reduce bacterial entrapment.  They ae made from 316 stainless steel material for superior corrosion resistance.  EXAIR manufactures four different sizes from 1 ½” up to 3” flanges.  If we were three years earlier in production at EXAIR, it would have been an easy choice for this fish processing plant.

EXAIR Line Vacs use a small amount of compressed air to generate a powerful vacuum by a Venturi effect.  The unique design of the generators creates a high velocity of air to create a low pressure on one side and a powerful thrust on the other.  You can watch a video of the operation of a Line Vac HERE.  Compared to other vacuum or conveying systems, the EXAIR Line Vacs are very quiet, rugged, and powerful.  For sensitive applications where cleanliness is a major need, the Sanitary Flange Line Vac are designed for these conditions.

If you need to convey solid materials in a quick and easy way, an EXAIR Line Vac could be a solution for you.  We have them in a variety of formats, materials, and sizes to easily match your application.  For the salmon processing plant, it improved their operations in removing fish bones.  EXAIR Line Vacs can save back-wrenching labor of picking up bags, climbing stairs, and dumping material into hoppers.  If you want to know if the EXAIR Line Vac could work for you, please fill out the Line Vac Data Sheet (click HERE).  An Application Engineer at EXAIR will help to recommend the best unit for you.  But, if you want to catch fish, you may want to ask a professional 😊.

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