Some applications just sound like textbook situations – a caller wants to remove static charge from, and blow off a large, flat surface. That’s PERFECT for the laminar, high velocity ionized air curtain produced by a Super Ion Air Knife. All you have to do is pick the length, and we have them from 3 inches to 9 feet long.
Large, flat surfaces – perfect for a Super Ion Air Knife, right?
Twice in the past week, I’ve been interrupted in my zeal to present the Super Ion Air Knife in these ideal situations by:
“…but I can’t move the product – I need to have something portable.”
And that’s OK. This is where it’s good to have a variety of offerings, including the portable, versatile, high performance Ion Air Gun. It’s durable and lightweight, so, if you can’t move the part, you can easily move the Ion Air Gun AROUND the part.
While it might be a “perfect” application for a Super Ion Air Knife, the Ion Air Gun works better if the product is stationary.
EXAIR Application Engineers are trained, and focused on, providing solutions. Even when something sounds “textbook,” there’s usually another way (or several) to look at it. And we’re really good at that. If you’d like to find out how to fit an EXAIR product into your compressed air needs, give me a call.
303 Stainless Super Air Knife in Mango de-watering process
Recently, I was working with a customer who specializes in post-harvest fruit processing. In this case, they were processing mangos from complete fruit down into cubes which are subsequently cleaned and packaged into plastic bags and then cardboard boxes for use in other food products.
When the customer contacted me, they were using a stainless steel pipe with holes drilled into it to de-water the fruit chunks after being sprayed to clean the individual pieces. They were using stainless steel pipe as they had a requirement for stainless steel construction due to being food grade facility. The problem with the pipe was that the airflow didn’t provide an even blowing force across the full, 30 inch width of the vibratory conveyor. The pipe solution also used quite a lot of compressed air. Unfortunately the customer could not measure what it was, but they gave me the number and size of the holes drilled into it. From that information, we could determine that they were using about 150 SCFM of compressed air at this one location.
And so, with the ineffectiveness of the pipe as well as the high air consumption, the customer went looking for something better. That’s when they found EXAIR Stainless Steel Super Air Knives on our web site. After some quick discussion to sort out the width of the conveyor and to establish what the need was, we settled on model 110030SS (30” 303 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife) to be mounted across the width of the conveyor (see photo above).
With the Super Air Knife installed, the customer was able to achieve the effectiveness he needed for the de-watering and at an airflow rate that was 42% less compressed air use than what he had before. Some of the other benefits that they were able to achieve without even being conscious of it were the enhanced safety of the OSHA compliant Super Air Knife and the sound level was cut dramatically as well.
EXAIR’s Super Air Knives are used many times in processing and packaging applications to provide a non-contact method for de-watering, blowing off dust, moving product off to one side, drying, ejecting and many more applications like these.
Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
nealraker@exair.com
@EXAIR_NR
Well, a lot, actually…if that name is EXAIR. I wrote a blog just last week about how a set of Super Air Knives solved a MAJOR problem with a brand new aluminum sawing application – the company got those Super Air Knives on the recommendation of the Maintenance Supervisor, who had used them, with great success, at a previous company.
Even more recently, I had the pleasure of helping a caller from an engineering firm that specifies a wide range of our products for use in their OEM machinery:
Turns out, they use a good amount of compressed air in their manufacturing facility and (did I mention they’re an engineering firm?) they’re interested in implementing a facilities resource management program. For one part of this, they want to know how much compressed air they’re using, when they’re using it, and what they’re using it for. And when presented with a question about compressed air, they thought about EXAIR…and wanted to know more about the Digital Flowmeter.
EXAIR’s Digital Flowmeter w/ USB Data Logger
We discussed everything from theory of operation, to best practices for installation (location, position, etc.,) to accuracy, to getting the flow data…and we’ve got a few options for that:
*The Digital Flowmeter itself can output a 4-20mA signal, or there’s an optional RS-485 output board available.
*The USB Data Logger connects directly to the Digital Flowmeter and records flow rate data – about 9 hours’ worth if measured once a second; 2 years’ worth if measured every 12 hours. When removed from the Digital Flowmeter and plugged into your computer, you can use its software, or Microsoft Excel, to view & analyze the data.
*The Summing Remote Display offers instant indication of current flow rate, previous 24 hours’ air consumption, and cumulative total usage, all at the push of a button.
EXAIR’s Summing Remote Display – see current flow rate, previous 24 hours’ consumption, or total cumulative usage, at the push of a button!
The latter turned out to be the best fit for my caller – the main supply header runs right past his office, and, if he can sell his facilities folks on it, he can install the Summing Remote Display on the wall, right next to his desk. Easy as that.
EXAIR’s Intelligent Compressed Air Products have made a name for themselves in many places like this. Here at the factory, we’re all dedicated to spreading, and reinforcing, that reputation for excellence. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.
These stainless steel molds have residual material after forming which needs to be blown off
The table of this machine spins, with identical mold setups in the front and rear
The images above show a molding machine process with a spinning table. The “front” side of the setup is used to remove finished product, while the “back” side forms new product over the stainless steel mold. Each side of the table uses an identical setup with application temperatures as high as 140°F.
The end user of this machine contacted EXAIR in search of a blowoff solution to be permanently installed and operated automatically. Any solution offered needed to use minimal compressed air, meet OSHA safety standards for dead end pressure (OSHA CFR 1910.242(b)), and be suitable for installation in a 140°F workspace.
The purpose of the blowoff would be to remove any debris/residual material left on the stainless steel mold after the finished product is removed. So, as the mold spins back into the machine, they wanted a way to remove any burrs or residual debris. The current process is to stop the machine and have a machine operator blow off the molds by hand (shown below). This reduces the efficiency of the machine and reduces the throughput of the process.
The current process is to stop the machine and blow off the molds by hand
With the full scope of the application uncovered and discussed, we found the perfect solution for this application in a stainless steel Super Air Knife. The stainless steel Super Air Knife can provide an efficient and repeatable blowoff solution, all while meeting OSHA safety standards and the temperature needs of the application. Plus, the Super Air Knife can be configured alongside a PLC or Electronic Flow Controller to allow for a “trigger-on” installation in which blowoff is only provided when needed. This setup saves compressed air, reducing operational cost and further increasing efficiency in the application.
The exact product used in this application was the model 110012SS, which provides a laminar blowoff 12” wide using a 303 grade stainless steel Super Air Knife. But, we also have knives ranging from 3” to 108” with the ability to machine custom lengths upon request. So, if you have an application in need of an efficient and laminar blowoff solution, reach out to us. We’ll be happy to help.
